Jack and the Gem Collector
by VeralicProductions
Summary: Jack meets a young man with a plan to gather magical relics that can control the elements to fight Aku! Many colorful characters and amazing creatures will try to stop Jack and his ally, Seth, but the fate of the universe shall always remain the same...
1. Episode 1

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

I. Jack and the Gem Collector

* * *

The busy, foot-traffic heavy space port of Laudland is where Jack now finds himself. After numerous unsuccessful missions and dead-end leads, all of them coming to the same impassible wall that was Aku, he now found himself without direction. The samurai was a leaf in the wind, blowing through this chaotic and dark place he once called his home planet with his pure white robes and straw hat. He stood out as he normally did but the civilians knew better than to approach him. The bounty hunters around him knew better as well.

He continued walking through the streets until he came upon a bustling tavern. Based on past experience, nothing good ever really happened to him in this kind of dive bar, but he wasn't in any place to be picky about where he would sit down to rest. If there wasn't such a high chance of dying in the open he would simply rest on the streets.

He walked in and was seen by the faces of many. With his fame and infamy most of those faces were belligerent, but even they faded away with apathy a moment later. The people and creatures were there to drink and rest and talk, much like Jack. He pulled himself a seat in the corner, sitting alone as usual, and waited for his waiter to come by, not that he had any good reason to. Jack may be a customer, but to any knowing bartender he isn't a priority of a customer.

"Check it out" one large, pig-faced brute of an alien said to his pals at his table. Jack couldn't help but hear them from his proximity, but he tried not to eavesdrop. The alien held up a shining white sphere, perfectly round like a pearl but larger than a normal pearl would be. It swirled with an odd mist of white and pale green, almost consciously pulsing out a beat. "I stole it from some abandoned Aku church. They say its a haunted jewel! What do you think?" He handed it off to a skinny, stick-necked red elven creature who held it up to his large eye and zoomed the gem close and far away.

"It's unique" the elf said "but I can't determine a worth on it. It's nothing I've ever seen before." The brutish one went from pleased and prideful to begrudged.

"Just make an estimate then!" the pig demanded. "I've got ten wives and twenty litters to feed this month or I'll get the book thrown at me!"

"Can I see it?" a new stranger asked. He stood quite tall with a soft voice over the table. His face was covered in the shadows of his black long coat and wide-brimmed hat where dull silver hair flowed in a tangled ponytail. "I think I've seen gems like that in Astoria."

"The Merchant Planet?" the pigman asked. "Well, what did they sell for?"

"In terms of Ak-urrency?" asked the gentleman, using the common term for 'Aku Validated Currency', the normal units of intergalactic money in this twisted and evil future. "Probably...several million, perhaps a solid billion." The pig's eyes lit right up. He snatched the gem from his friend and handed it to the stranger.

"Take a good long look at it" the pig offered. Jack could sense some strange mixing malice in the air. His body begged to start moving. "It was real hard to get, you know" the pig added as the stranger eyed the gem over through his covered eyes. "I had to fight ghosts, real live ghosts to get to it! I nearly lost my life." The stranger held it up high, towards the light, and then clasped it hard in his hand to test its authenticity. It pulsed harder once exposed to open air again and settled back to its soothingly slow tempo. "What do you think?"

"I think" the stranger said, grasping it again, "it's mine." The stranger started sprinting away, through the tables and meandering quickly past the aliens in his way. The pigman grew instantly enraged and turned flush-pink.

"Please sir" Jack offered with his hand blocking the man and the other hand on his sword handle, "allow me." Jack dashed off after the strange man, hoping to catch him before he got out into the streets. The stranger looked back and saw the white-robed samurai chasing him, then looked up onto the rafters of the tavern for a more daring escape route. As Jack was upon him with outstretched hands, the man jumped clear up to the roof and landed upside-down on his feet with a thud. Jack looked up, undaunted by the maneuver. He could easily imitate it.

"Get him!" the pigman shouted, cheering Jack on. In reality, he was ordering his friends to pull out their guns and shoot at him. The strange thief in black saw the guns being drawn and then saw Jack jumping from a vertical post to a horizontal rafter above the ground. He was quickly scaling up to the ceiling where the thief stayed suspended by his mighty, metal-soled boots in the ceiling.

"Give that gem back" Jack demanded "and I can assure you won't get hurt."

"I can't do that" the man said worriedly. He looked around a bit more and found an open window facing the red sky. He stomped across the ceiling, keeping his long coat close to his body with his hands, and climbed through it. Jack followed him as the pigman and his men ran outside.

* * *

Jack stepped out onto the slanted rooftop of the shanty-shack tavern and saw his target barely eluding him. Jack ran after him, racing from roof to roof while the pigs hopped on hovering motorcycles and wielded guns aimed skyward.

"Don't let that guy get away!" the leader shouted.

"Who?" another pigman with a beard shouted. "The Samurai?"

"No!" the pigman demanded. "The thief! We can't catch that Jack dude! Let's just concentrate on stopping the thief!"

"Got it" another fatter, tusked pigman affirmed. They split that crowds as the raced through the street sin pursuit of the oddly fast man in black trailed by the infamously agile man in white. Jack took his hand off his sword at last, with no worry of having to fight the coward who ran from him, and used his hands as extra feet like a monkey to overcome the obstacles in his way. He could see the thief had no problem with obstacles. He simply jumped over them as they came.

"He is fast" Jack observed. "But surely, he will tire." The man in black suddenly stopped and turned around, whipping off his external, thick trench-coat to the side. Jack stopped at the ledge of the roof he shared with this man to see him.

He was a tall man wearing black. His dark-blue pants were bound at his hips by to belts crossed at his groin. Under the longer cloak he had thrown away he wore a light-gray shirt, faded with age that had an image of the planet with bird wings just barely visible. He wore leather gloves, one of which had in its greedy grasp the stolen gem. His was carved of beautiful and strikingly sharp features. Jack saw nothing in that face that indicated evil, only distress in his upturned eyebrows and parted lips.

"Listen to me" the man said. "I don't want any trouble."

"Neither do I" Jack said. He folded his arms into his robe and glared the man down.

"I know who you are" the man said, now keeping his brow finely furrowed as a defensive stance. "I think you can appreciate what I'm doing more than some petty treasure-hunters can." Jack tilted his head curiously. The man held up his hand and let the gem shine brightly in the dim light. It was glowing with more verve and brilliance than before, the swirling mist within pulsing outward and back inward constantly.

"It is a beautiful gem" Jack admitted "but that does not give you the right to steal it. That man down there found it on his own. You have no right to-"

"This gem can level this entire city!" the man announced. The seriousness, the weight of his voice was enough to force Jack into a state of calm dismay...and belief. "This gem is actually an ancient artifact. Ages ago, Aku attempted to harvest its power, but the gem did not respond to him and he sealed it away. Anti-Aku groups worshiped the gem as a tool against Aku, but once he got word he had them taken out. Little does the so-called master of the universe know it, but there are actually many of these gems hidden around this very world, and I intend to find them, to destroy that ancient terror once and for all!"

Jack was moved by the speech, and somehow he found it all to be true deep within his mind. Jack let his arms down, then looked over the side of the building at the pigmen parking their bikes. He reached into his hidden pocket of money and pulled out an expensive pearl he estimated of high value. It didn't swirl the same way, but it was just as mystifying to a common man as that gem would be.

"Consider this an act of faith" Jack said as he threw his gem over the ledge. The thief looked at him curiously, trying to pull meaning from his gesture. The gem Jack dropped fell down and bounced off the helmeted head of the leading pigman, who caught it as it fell and looked at it with glee.

"Let's go boys!" he called, holding his prize high over head. "A thousand rounds of drinks on me!"

"YEEHAW!" his crew shouted. They raced off through the streets once more. The thief understood. By letting him keep the gem, he would protect his identity and the supposed power he held.

"If what you say is true" said Jack, although he truly had little doubt, "then I must accompany you. If you know who I am, then you will not need a reason why."

"Thank you" the thief said with a light bow of respect. Jack bowed back. "My name is Seth, by the way."

"Glad to meet you, Seth" Jack greeted cordially. "I suggest we get off of the roofs for now. Aku has eyes everywhere it seems, and we are not safe to converse about him in the open."

"Yes" Seth agreed. "I have a hideout deeper in town. We can head there and rest for now."

* * *

So it was that Jack and Seth set out through the town to find the hideaway they would use as a base. Seth's route was as perilous as it was safe, many leaps and bounds over and under such dangerous obstacles in the broken underbelly of the space port. He lived far away from the legal district and under the cover of a roof of slum houses above. He was very, very well hidden, safe even from the watching eyes of Aku.

Seth pushed aside some plates of metal blocking the main entrance of his small, domed shack and held the door open for Jack. Once he was inside Seth released his grip and the door slammed shut. The metal outside made a racket as it moved back into displaced place.

"Don't worry" Seth said. "No one can hear it all the way down here." Once Jack got over the shock of the noise he took a look around the single-room hobble. It was built as a defense, not areal house, with a small empty mantle of tiny holes where the gems would surely be stored. He had a bed on the floor, just a rough looking pillow and a dirty rug, a closet where he hung his extra identical suits and dirt clothes, a small pit where he made fires with a metal grill over it and an incredibly long sword in a black scabbard on the wall above the gem storage.

"What a long sword you have" Jack noticed.

"I rarely use it" Seth admitted, placing the white gem on a stand with a circular indentation made specifically to hold a gem of that size in front of all the others. Jack noticed there was another slot right next to the white one and made the leap of judgment.

"If there is a white one" Jack began "then there must also be a black." Seth stopped in his movements and closed his eyes with a heavy air about him.

"That there is" Seth began in his serious tone. "This gem controls the force of life, the force that comes form all living things. If its powers were unleashed, a mighty stream of energy composed of the willpower and life of all the beings on this planet would form and blow away anything in its path, including the evil Aku."

"What mighty power" Jack said in utter amazement. "Is it possible for anyone to use it?"

"No" Seth said disappointedly. "Unfortunately, I have found no one capable of using this gem. However, there is an anti-life gem out there. It's power is to create a force capable of making the white one useless. A force that can extinguish all life force on the planet." Jack's eyes shot open. "You can imagine the destruction that could be caused by such a gem, Jack. If anyone, Aku including, were to acquire that power the universe would be in extreme danger of collapsing!"

"Then we must do something!" Jack demanded. "How many gems must we collect?"

"I have no real number" Seth admitted. "I suspect that there is a gem for every possible power that occurs in and out of nature. Fire, water, earth, gravity, time, wind, lightning; the possibilities are endless. This mantle I carved can only work in theory. If we could gather as many as we could, we may be able to stand against Aku long enough to find an appropriate user for the white gem, that is my plan."

"What about this black gem?" Jack said. "If we can gather enough gems and find enough clues, we could find that one as well and destroy it!"

"You are right" Seth said. "Destroying that gem would benefit the world just as much s using the white one! It's a plan!"

"Yes" Jack said, full of promise and energy. "We should head out immediately and find the first gem!"

"Weeeellll..." Seth said hesitantly, "that's a problem. You see, as of now, I seem to be the only man alive that really knows the worth of these gems, and this is the only one I've found so far. Even if we ask, no one would know where to look or how. I'm sorry Jack, I must have led you to some false belief."

"Do not worry" Jack said with a hand up. "I have met some deceitful people in the past, I have walked false paths before. I can see the look of distrust immediately in a person's eye, and in yours I see none. You are honest, caring, and concerned. You are righteous. I believe you, Seth, and I shall help you using whatever information I can." Jack started rustling within his robes and pulled out a small, decrepit piece of parchment. On it was an etching of a very crude, red lizard standing proudly among some brown rocks on a distinct and monumental mountain ledge. "The Salamander of Hikami island. It is a monster rumored to control fire. I believe if there is truly a path that these gems lie on, this creature would be our first step. He must guard one of the the mystic gems we seek!"

Seth picked up the paper and scanned it many times in disbelief. It was almost too much for him to believe himself, that such a journey would have an obvious starting point for him and his new partner. "You know what Jack?" Seth said, looking up hopefully from the paper, "I trust you as well! We shall go, first thing tomorrow, to Hikami island! It can't be too far, and there we shall find the first of many gems! Thank you Jack!"

"Do not mention it" Jack said.

"Now then" Seth said, handing the paper back and taking off his shirt, "let us sleep. You may take the softest spot of the floor next to my fire pit to stay warm tonight. Tomorrow we will find a ship bound for Hikami island and stowaway on it."

"I look forward to it" Jack said. He smiled as Seth laid down but frowned as he laid himself down. Something was unsettling him, some arcane fear in the far back of his mind. Perhaps it was just his instincts, lowering his expectations in the event he indeed was being tricked. But something else stirred up in him, telling him that Seth was true of heart and righteous of soul. He was the same heart as Jack, and that was enough for Jack to peacefully sleep on. That and the extra pillow and blanket Seth had given him to use.

Tomorrow would be a bright day for the wandering hero out of time; and the start of an even greater adventure.


	2. Episode 2

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

II. Hikami Island

* * *

"ALL ABOARD!" called a mariner. "This ship is en route to Castra Villa port with a stopover on Hikami island and Endagro island! Let's go! All ABOARD!" The docks, that is the water docks, were as busy as ever to drive up their tourism. The workers, mostly bulky aliens who could lift the weighty cargo and operate the cranes for lifting the heavier stuff, got more time off than any white-collar working man. Their job was to stand around and come up with excuses as to why business was so slow around their area in case the managerial workers came by asking for progress reports.

The heraldic mariner with light blond hair and a roughly untrimmed stubble decided to save his voice for the crew of his rusty, dented cargo dinghy. While waiting he lit up a alien smoke, hand rolled and carefully stuffed with extraterrestrial herbs for a smooth taste and nerve-calming effect, and placed it in his mouth. "It never gets busy around here" he admitted lifelessly. A small but thick alien frog-man was wheeling a large box with an archaic handcart onto the ship when the mariner caught him.

"Make sure you're careful with that." The worker croaked affirmatively and very slowly brought it onto the ship. He worked it down into the main cargo storage below deck and, just as he was lining it up to its proper place, he tripped and the box fell. It made one full flip over until it set itself into place neatly among the other boxes. With a shrug the frog-faced man took his handcart back up and left the cargo bay of the boat.

The box the worker had just brought in began to shift and move. The side was suddenly kicked out and landed on the floor. Inside were the tumbled and greatly misplaced figures of Jack and Seth. Jack was somehow upside down and Seth was holding him in place with the leverage of his sheated sword on his hip. He wore his long and thick trench coat once more, and his hat with the long wide brim was somehow on his back now.

"Was this my suggestion" Jack asked "or yours?"

"I'll take the blame" Seth agreed, slowly falling out. "I've done this before, so this shouldn't have happened with my planning!" Both men fell out onto the hard metal floor.

"Well" Jack began, rubbing his head "I wouldn't mind blaming you either, but let's agree to disagree for right now. We still have to hide until we reach Hikami island." Jack got up first while Seth continued to check himself. Jack offered him a hand and pulled him up with a smile.

"Unload that below" the mariner above called "and watch it this time! I heard you drop that other box and it better not be broken!" The frogman croaked and carted the next load down into the cargo bay of the small ship. The box was alright, although a little busted up around the edges. It would hold together, he thought, and he unloaded the next box without any problems. Once he left for the second time, Jack came out from holding the busted box wall up from inside the box and Seth dropped down from the ceiling rafters.

"A narrow dodge" Seth said breathlessly. "How do you do it so much?"

"You get used to it" Jack explained as he fixed the box as best he could. "Mostly you need to learn to hold your breath."

"I see" Seth said. "Now, we need a permanent hiding place for this trip." Jack smiled at his companion. He already had an idea, it seemed. The frogman came in one last time with one final box and set it against the somewhat-broken one he dropped earlier to keep it together. After that load was done he went up a set of stairs to the main deck as the rest of the crew got ready to ship out. The crew included the gruff and surly old sailor who called desperately for passengers, the frog-faced stout man in charge of navigation and a cybernetic warthog-humanoid alien with a red visor in place of his eyes and a mechanical hand with a laser gun.

"We're shipping out men" the surly sailor said. "Bas, make sure we ain't got any stowaways. Last thing we need is a freeloader on this ship." Bas, the warthog man, snorted with a nod and set off for the lower deck. The ship was small, a private vessel for equally private deliveries over the sea and between the islands near the mainland. It consisted of a amain cabin for the navigator, a smokestack where the toxic fumes form the atomic power core oozed out into the air, and a bow. There wasn't much else aside from the wider-than-long make of the ship that warranted anyone to even want to sail on it.

"Dammitall" the sailor, acting as captain, cursed. "With all this talk about adventure in the town you'd think more people would want to go to exotic ports and whatnot. But no, not with all their fancy little hovercrafts and flying machines! BAH! I remember a time, dammit, where boats were the best and safest mode of transport. If something needed to go from place to place, you put it on a boat or on a train, and boats were quicker! I tell ya, Froggy, I lived in better times." He took a nice, long drag from his cigarette and leaned against the metal wall of the tiny cabin while Froggy mutely steered.

"Where's Bas?" the captain asked. Bas was down below, unconscious from two solid fists to the head, curtousy of Jack and Seth. Seth was rubbing his knuckles from the blow but Jack was cool about it.

"Nice plan" Seth complimented.

"It works" Jack said with a shrug.

* * *

"Dammitall" the sailor cursed. "That slacking slacker better not slack off on me! Froggy, mind our course." Froggy croaked and the captain went down below. Jack and Seth heard him from up above and scurried into position. They let the warthog-man wake up and rub his head from the floor while the captain busted into the room with a face full of rage.

"What in Hades is wrong with you, Bas!?" the captain growled. He walked over, not waiting for a single snort, and kicked Bas straight in the snout. Bas made a squeal of pain and fright. "Get to work, dammit!" the captain shouted. He started breathing quick and hevily before making his rageful way back to the cabin above. Bas snorted in confusion and stood up dizzily. Blood was dripping out of his large nostrils. Jack felt guilty deep down, but he restrained the feeling for his own safety. Seth felt concerned and worried that he would get found out in the obvious place he hid, but stayed shock still while Bas passed by.

Seth had taken to hiding in the corner, right in plain sight, with his black coat covering him and his face hidden. Bas fell for it and made his way back up, closing the door behind him. Jack popped up from his cover in the narrow, empty space behind the stacked boxes and Seth got up from his own space as well, holding his sheathed long sword in his right hand while adjusting his hat with his left.

"You're left handed?" Jack asked.

"Actually" Seth said "I am ambidextrous. I prefer using my sword in my left hand, though. My teacher taught me to fight with my left hand in a specific style that I since mastered. It's never failed me before, and it is strikingly efficient with any opponent. Why do you ask?"

"No real reason" Jack admitted. "I find it interesting that there is someone else who uses a katana like mine." Jack drew out his blade and let Seth examine its almost luminescent metal. "Are you of the same ancestry as I?"

"I would think so" Seth said hopefully. "Although, I have heard some very distressing tales about Aku's plague of existence back in those times. The tales are that he emerged from those very lands to start his evil empire, and you were there, blade at his neck, to stop him."

"Yes" Jack said somberly, "but unfortunately I could not destroy him in time. He tricked me and threw me through time into the future, this world, where he reigns mighty over all races."

"His tyranny is a tragedy" Seth agreed. "However, it is a tragedy that you and I can end! We need only to find the one person capable of using the white gem of Life and let them destroy Aku. Until then, we will gather as many of these gems as we can to harvest their power and fight Aku when the time comes."

"Can we really use these gems at will?" Jack asked. "I thought only one person could use each gem."

"It is a theory" Seth admitted, sounding unsure of himself for stating something unproven so truthfully. "If I am correct, the gem of Life is the only one that requires a specific user. Other gems can be controlled by normal people if they have the willpower and knowledge to use them."

"I see" Jack said, understanding just enough to form his own theory. "So there is someone who is so mentally poised to ridding the world of Aku and is of such pure spirit that the purity of the white Life gem will only respond to them. Nether of us, I can say, are very pure, as our blades have been stained with both oil and blood in our lives. That is why it would reject us. The aspect of life is purity and balance."

"So if I am correct" Seth began hopefully "then as long as we have the spirit of the element we wish to use, we can use it. So, for fire, out spirit must be swiftly destructive and raging, but we must be able to control it."

"Yes" Jack agreed. "Like the fire we must be slow to anger and quick to punishment. Out power can be checked but only under pressing circumstances and harsh elements can it be quelled. If our spirits can mimic that of the flame we can use fire at will." Jack's speech, though lifting and philosophical, sailed almost straight over Seth's head and he just stood blankly staring. Jack shifted his expression from optimistic to a disappointed sorrow and rethought his phrasing.

"If we act like fire" Jack said "then the gem will respond and we can use it to create fire or control fire or...um..."

"Say no more, Jack" Seth said. "I believe that is the truest explanation we can have at this time. At any rate, we need to sit back and start hoping very hard that the gem actually is with the Salamander. It may be a theory, but I believe it is sound, so I trust it."

"I trust it as well" Jack said.

"You should" Seth replied. "You came up with it. A theory can only hold ground if the theorizer keeps the ground under his theory. Disclaiming it will only make it an infeasibility." Seth could see now that his futuristic philosophical banter had gone over the eons-old Jack's head as well, so he smiled and laughed a bit nervously. "Don't lose your own faith, is all I'm saying" Seth said.

* * *

"DISEMBARK!" the captain shouted to his crew. Bas snorted annoyedly and made for shore. They were at their first stop, Hikami Island. A desolate chunk of land where the grass and the plants were the same color as the dead dirt under them. One large spire of charred-black rock stood out among the rest of the scenery, an obvious landmark for something on the small island. Even the sand on the shores was dead and solid like a salt flat.

Bas stepped onto the hard ground and rolled his shoulders around. The captain walked out proudly, trying to keep what little pride there was to have over getting to this place, and looked around at the scenery. Jack and Seth had heard two of the three men depart already and decided now to sneak out the rear of the boat and swim to shore out of sight.

"Are you ready?" Jack asked as he slowly and carefully opened the back door of the cargo hold.

"I suppose" Seth said. "I should tell you, with all this leather, it may be hard for me to swim with the same agility as you in your cloth."

"Don't worry" Jack said. "If you start drowning or struggling, whistle and I will assist you."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence" Seth said in a whisper. He would never mean to offend the great Samurai Jack when he offers his help. Jack dipped himself slowly and quietly into the softly churning waves and Seth followed. The leather made it hard to stay afloat but not impossible. Seth followed Jack as closely as he could without making a sound as they attempted to circle the island's expansive and barren shore. They were headed for a small patch of rocks just a quick swim from the ship where they wouldn't be seen disembarking.

"Take a good long breath in" the captain said with a gruff sense of peace. "Ah, this is the life. Sailing is in my blood, you know. My ancestors were rumored to come up with modern space-travel, at least the schematics of it. I think that's pretty damn interesting, don't you?" Bas snorted and stared off into the distance. He was using his cybernetic eyes to scan the horizon for anything living or edible, just as a precocious nature he inherited from his nomadic species.

Bas was busy scanning the shore for plant life when his visor picked up the quick flashes of dampened heat from behind a pile of rocks. He made a snort and enhanced his vision, seeing two distinct forms behind the rocks wringing out their clothes. One of them looked familiar, the other was simply a tall man. Bas made a squeal and series of snorts while pointing at the rocks with his laser arm.

"What!?" the captain exclaimed. "There are others here!? How?"

Froggy croaked something wise from the boat, just a simple single croak, and the captain became enraged.

"Stowaways!" he growled. "That's it, I'm pissed! We're killing them!"

"Did you hear something?" Seth asked from behind the rocks.

"Probably nothing" Jack said. "Let me check if the sailors are still here." Jack ducked out from the rocks just long enough to be shot at and ducked back in. "They are still here."

"Oh crap!" Seth exclaimed with a hint of fear in his voice. "They found us out! Now what do we do?" Jack snapped the moisture out of his robes and reequipped them. Then he drew his sword out slowly.

"We must fight" Jack said. "At least until they realize the futility of fighting." Seth was at odd ends, as his pacifist nature would normally prohibit him from fighting, but there were no other options at this time. He let his leather coat dry on its own and equipped his long blade with his simple black pants and sleeveless shirt as his armor. His damp hair still managed to blow in the wind with Jack's topknot and the warriors nodded in unison at their coordinated plans.

"Get 'em!" the captain shouted. Jack jumped up from the rocks and exposed himself freely on the flat shore. Bas shot at him, but his laser blasts only got deflected away. Seth came up from the blind-side of the visored warthog-man and started slowly drawing his sword from its long, black scabbard. In a flash he attacked, reappearing in fair dash away from Bas with his sword fully drawn and flung out the the side in his left hand. Bas tried to shoot again, but his arm had been sliced off and fell to the ground. Electricity crackled from his exposed robotics and the captain's jaw dropped. It dropped so far that his cigarette fell out of his mouth.

"It is" Seth began almost poetically, "a very effective style." Seth stood up and turned around, brandishing his sword with his left hand over his right shoulder and the blade dropping at an angle that covered his body. He held the lower end of the handle with his right hand and glared at the captain past his blade. Jack stood a distance away with his sword drawn and held it tightly in one hand.

"Dammitall" the captain said roughly. "You two give me a second and I'll be right back to fight you! I just need to get my weapon!"

"We don't want to fight you that badly" Jack said. "We simply want to-"

"Hurry and get it" Seth said. "We can wait."

"Gotcha!" the captain said. He picked Bas up, a heavy warthog-man equipped with technological armor from out of the galaxy itself, and carried him back to the boat with one arm. That was an adequate display of his strength that made Seth's plan seem all the more efficient.

"Now Jack" Seth said "we can leave." Jack nodded and sheathed his sword. Seth dashed away with his sword out to the side and his scabbard held close to his side. The two left their mariner friend to meet the empty land with an enthusiastic grin and a long, bladed pike in his hand. The search was already on for the Salamander, but now a new search would begin.

"Dammitall!" the captain shouted. He started running off in one random direction, pumping his arms exaggeratively, in hopes of chasing after his stowaway prey. "You can't escape the Swiftwind Kid that easily! DAMMIT!"


	3. Episode 3

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

III. Jack and the Salamander

* * *

Jack and Seth continued on across the scorch-colored flats of Hikami Island to the tallest landmark they could see: the towering spire of craggy fire-blasted rock. Surely, if anywhere, the Salamander would be waiting there. With the captain of the tiny ship Swiftwind Kid after them with intensity reserved usually for the more enthusiastic and cocksure bounty hunters that frequented them, the tandem freedom fighters found the need to sprint across the otherwise safe stretch of land.

"We should reach it soon" Jack noted. "The island isn't that large."

"What will we do once we reach it though" Seth asked. "I mean, the Salamander may be there, and it may not be there. What will we do if there is no Salamander on this island?"

"Then we shall continue searching" Jack said quite bluntly. "There are only so many mystical beings in the world that Aku has destroyed. I have traveled to many places and have seen many great things. I am sure that we will find it if we search." Seth was honestly moved by Jack's optimism. In a bleak and dystopic world where he is hunted so ferociously, he still finds the space within himself to be so peaceful and calm about things. His voice never carried anger, only vindication, righteous wrath.

"Hopefully" Seth began "the search for the other Gems will go just as well as this one. As you said, only so many creatures exist, and there can only be so many roosts for them to stay at in the world. If we look I'm sure we will find them! Yes! I am positive!" Jack was glad that Seth was back in high spirits. It seemed that his attitude was on a constant shift downward, but the optimism Jack gave him seemed to help.

The two continued running until the ground began rifting. The petrified flat turned quickly into a stretch of gravel and rocks until the crag and speared sharpness of the rocks reached a high point and both men suddenly found themselves climbing upwards. No spiral path or staircase existed on this ancient tower, only by the rough hands of a warrior could one ascend. They climbed high and began to drop pace, noticing the odd sensation that built up as they went higher.

"The rocks" Seth pointed out "are getting hotter as we go up."

"This rock must be volcanic" Jack noted. "Stay alert. If lava starts pouring, do not be afraid. Just descend and shift yourself to the side to avoid it."

"Agreed" Seth said. "At least I'm dry now."

"Yes" Jack said happily. "I am as well." They continued up, eventually feeling the need to stop long enough to wrap their hands with whatever spare cloth they had. Seth wrapped his hands in thin leather, which kept the heat out and kept his grip firm. They continued, otherwise unimpeded, up the vertical wall. As they approached the top they noticed the effects of their progress. The sky was already shifting colors to a smoky black and a deep rumbling became very apparent.

"We are close" Jack said.

"What?" Seth shouted.

"I said we're close!" Jack called to answer.

"Are you talking to me?" Seth asked.

"What!?" Jack shouted. Suddenly the tower became unstable. The two men were nearly thrown off it by a very sudden shaking. Seth held on for his life. Out of instinctive fear he close his eyes and clutched as hard as he could to the wide wall. Jack was less shaken. He looked down to see that he had progressed much farther than he initially thought. The shoreline was easily visible from up here, as well as a pillar of smoke coming from a neighboring volcanic island. Then he looked up and saw that the journey was nearly over.

"Keep climbing!" Jack called. Seth looked over, knowing Jack had said something but didn't know what, and let go of his deathgrip he had on the spire. He started climbing up once more, now only a few steps behind Jack, when another tremor shook them. This time Seth let go and started dropping down rapidly.

"SETH!" Jack shouted. Seth wasn't lost in his fear. Before he had gone too far, he drew out his sword in a flash and stabbed it into the face of the rock wall. He stomped the metal soles of his boots into the rock and eventually slowed to a stop. He then used his sword as an oar and started running straight up the slope. Jack was at a loss of words. "What amazing swordplay!" Jack said at great length. Seth's progress wasn't as rapid as his descent would have been, but the exercise was quite interesting for Jack to watch. There was still a short stretch ahead, though, which Jack scaled with ease as Seth scaled in his own strange way to catch up at last.

* * *

"Damn them!" Kid shouted. "Damn them all! I mean, damn them both!" Kid ran as fast as his legs would carry him, holding his long, bladed pike behind him in one hand. He was a good distance away from the men he was hunting, but he was somehow catching up. He stomped through the field of dust-brown grass, crushing it beneath his feet like brittle dead leaves in the fall. Since returning Bas to the boat and ensuring Froggy had his orders to stay-put well understood, he had grown quite tense and angered.

"No one stows away on my ships!" Kid shouted into the air. He suddenly stopped in the open field and rested against the shaft of his spear, breathing heavily. "Dammitall! Stupid alien cigars, making my lungs all crappy...damn. I need a break..." Kid sat down and drew from his cigarette, ignoring his own words of warning. He looked around at the landscape with his lips parted. He scratched at his blond head and rubbed at his rough stubble.

The trees here were once of tropical descent. The grass was green and thick, but it never entwined those who walked into it with its thickness. It was a gentle island of perpetual blue skies. A shore of crystal waters with sand white as the clouds that rarely graced the shining daylight. The water had stayed just as clear and lucid, but now the sand was red and had the paleness of death, much like the plant life. Kid tapped at a frozen strand of grass and broke it from the ground. At some point, in some odd stretch of history, this paradise was petrified. Most blame Aku.

It happened well before his time. Now this island is nothing more than a tourist attraction for all of those who wish to see the miraculous preservation of life. A frozen piece of natural art taken in an everlasting faded Sepia tone. Even so, few people of artistic flavor and taste ever actually come to this place. It reeks of death and ash. It is not a pleasant place to be for any amount of time, for nearly any remote reason.

"Dammitall" Kid sighed. "Why'd I bother to stop here? This place is probably what turned the tourists away at the docks..." After a brief moment of thought, Kid decided to blow out a drag of smoke and reword his assumption. "Gah, dammit! There were never tourists at that damn dock! There never are! Why do I bother to do business there anyway!? Sailing, navigating, piloting; it's in my blood! My ancestors have been moving across the world without touching the ground for eons! Since before Aku even! Damn..." Kid stopped shouting at last and rested his forehead in his hand. He took a moment of rare silence to evaluate his own life...then he remembered and shot straight up.

"DAMMITALL!" he roared. "That's right! Those ship-jacking jerks are getting away!" Kid started sprinting once more for the monumental spire across the island with his spear trailing behind him. "I don't give out free rides!!!"

* * *

Atop the tower of heat-blasted rock, Jack and Seth took a well-deserved rest on the oddly cool ground.

"That was amazing" Jack said. Seth heard him now, as the rumble from before had gone and was drowned out by the sheer altitude they were at. "Where did you learn that?"

"I've always been fairly adept with swords" Seth admitted modestly. "My master told me that I was a genius, a fighting legend. Even as a child I could best any adult in a ring of traditional sword fighting. But when my parents found out they only wanted to use it for themselves. They didn't care about me, just my swords, and they forced me to compete in gladiatorial games and give them the prize money. Ever since my master died I've been training myself...based somewhat on you, Jack."

"Really?" Jack replied in his own modest astonishment. "I am sorry to say, but I don't believe I ever ran up a wall quite like that. I couldn't have taught you that, even in the stories people tell."

"They do tell amazing stories" Seth said. "You've fought gods, apart from Aku, and won. Even without your sword you have always proven to be more than formidable to the many drones of Aku's army."

"That I can rightly say is true" Jack admitted. Now that they were rested and in high spirits, the men stood up and looked around. The top of the spire had an out of place growth of short, green grass all over with only one formation of jutting rocks at the edge of the circular pinnacle.

"Well" Seth said with a sigh "it appears that the Salamander is not here."

"Do not be so hasty" Jack said. He started walking around, very carefully, and watched the grass beneath his feet for any strange shifting. "Perhaps the lizard we seek is not a monster, but a harmless tiny one."

"You may be right" Seth agreed. "Although, I think that would be dreadfully anti-climactic." Seth started looking around as well. He minded his steps as his boots were more destructive to any small animal that wooden sandals. The searched everywhere, combing through the grass with their hands, but neither of them found a lizard. With his mouth gaping and almost drooling, Seth peered down at what he had found: a shining red Gem.

"Jack!" Seth shouted excitedly. He picked the Gem up, forcing a brilliant crimson glow out of it immediately, and held it up to the dim-lit sky of red. "I found it!"

"Excellent" Jack remarked. "Now hopefully we can find a safer way down and off the island."

"Off the island?" a rumbling voice asked. "Whoever said you could leave the island...?" Jack and Seth turned at once to the out-of-place jutting stones. They began to move in an oddly organized manner. They weren't rocks at all, but the hide of some beast that was making itself known to the two. Seth hid the Gem in his pocket and took his stance. Jack drew his sword and held it down at his side. The beast started turning around.

For once Jack would face a roughly humanoid beast. This thing was huge in its standing, wide at its shoulders and hips with forceful muscle and vicious in appearance. Its back was rock gray with harder black spots scaling from its head to the tip of its long, thick tail. It had a reptilian underbelly of dark, pale red that sectioned from the bottom of its ribs to the end of its tail. Its legs were shaped much like a prehistoric dinosaurs with three huge talons in front and a spiked toe in the back. The knee joints bent back and the forward again, making its foot seem extremely long rather than a separate part of the leg. Its arms were stacked high with muscles, a structure Jack couldn't recall encountering before.

Raw masculinity poured out from the beast's body, and its face had a glaring shine of terror. Long, gnashing pointed teeth were exposed from its lipless mouth and a forked tongue was seen slowly lashing about within its maw. It had two vertical slits in the middle of its wide, strong face as nasal passages and two deep-red human-like eyes. At the round crown of its oddly human head it sported two short horns that seemed to be ablaze with embers. It was a monster, that was certain, but it had a presence that Jack had never felt before. A sort of regal presentation, like he was fighting some proud knight rather than some horrific demon.

"I am the master of this land" it said with its deep, booming voice. "My name is Ifrit Dajeen, son of the greatest fire demon in all of history! I was entrusted to guard that Gem you have taken from anyone who wishes ill to the world."

"Then you need not guard it from us" Jack insisted. "We are on a mission for the better of the world. We must gather the Gems and use them to defeat Aku!"

"LIES!" the demon bellowed. It drew its arms high up into the air and slammed them to the ground. The entire pillar started to rumble violently, then settled down. "A demon knows villainy when he sees it! You're purpose here is not one of betterment but one of corruption and greed!"

"You must believe us" Seth pleaded. "We mean you no harm at all, we just need-"

"I will hear none of it!" Ifrit Dajeen bellowed. "If you wish to escape this place, then you must first defeat me! Only the truly righteous and just can slay a demon!" Ifrit raised his huge, powerful tail up and slammed it down to the ground in front of him. The entire pillar started to quickly sink down. Jack and Seth dug their swords into the ground while Ifrit wedged his large foot-talons into the firm dirt as they dropped.

"What is happening!?" Jack shouted.

"We will fight below" Ifrit said, "and the quickest way down is to fall, of course. You may survive the fall, but the fight you will surely lose!"

"No!" Jack demanded. "Our hearts are most certainly pure! If you are not willing to believe us then we will show you as we must! Seth! Be ready to fight!"

"Of course!" Seth agreed. As the platform at the top of the tower sank the rest of the island started to shift and rumble. The dead grass that Kid was once again breathlessly resting in started to shatter and swirl about in the air as a cloud of dust and ash. The rock-hard tree trunks broke apart like so much glass and the fragments danced around wildly in a magical wind. Ifrit started raising his arms up as he fell, controlling the flow of the ash and dust below to gather in the sky.

Far off the coast of the island the dust could be seen covering the entire span of sky above the isle. Cruise ships full of rich and privileged people and aliens saw the strange phenomenon and watched, memorized by the strange rituals. The dust continued swirling about until it formed a terrible, demonic face of horns and pointed teeth above the island. Panic ensued.

* * *

With the pillar finally settled down into dust and the dust all flying in the air, Jack and Seth departed for solid ground away from Ifrit. Kid was knocked far back by the recoiling blast of air that escaped the collapsing tower. Now that he could move freely again he looked around. The petrified grass was all gone, the horizon was flat and treeless. The island had been upheaved of all that was once alive on it by some cataclysmic force, and the only one's he could see were the rogue swordsman in black and Samurai Jack.

"Dammitall!" Kid shouted as he sprung up from his back. "I knew you two were trouble! That's it. I'm gonna kick your asses!"

"It will have to wait" Jack said. Ifrit started stomping down from the platform of grass. Each step he took set the ground aflame with blazing red fire. Embers flew up into the air like an army of fireflies that surrounded and then departed the demon's terrible face. The blacks of his pupils became nasty vertical slits inside the hellfire red glowing orbs of his eyes.

"Yeah" Seth added. "This guy has first dibs on us." Seth got into position, sword over shoulder, left hand forward on the handle. Jack stood in his traditional pose, sword straight up with right hand primary, standing with his right leg forward. Kid backed away from the demon out of fear and held his spear forward.

"What the hell is that thing?" Kid asked. Ifrit opened its toothy maw and breathed out a cloud of black soot.

"You need not fight" Ifrit said to Kid. "I have no quarrel with a man like you. These two, however, may not leave this land alive until I am rested in the ground."

"You have left us no choice, Ifrit" Jack said. "We will slay you for our cause!"

"I should hope that you can" Ifrit lowed. Jack started rushing in with his face frozen in threatening seriousness. "For if you fail to defeat me, only a painful death can follow..."


	4. Episode 4

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

IV. Jack & Seth versus Ifrit Dajeen

* * *

The monster Ifrit squared himself up against his enemies. He pointed the toes of either clawed foot at either swordsman. Kid staggered away in fright with his spear clutched tightly in hand, unwilling to get involved in the danger that was presenting itself. Seth and Jack gripped their swords tightly and prepared to charge. Through silent strategizing they planned their approach. They moved forward at the same time in a short dash.

"Come however" Ifrit lowed, "it won't matter. I can burn you apart in an instant!"

"Split!" Seth commanded. Jack suddenly flew ahead and jumped at Ifrit. He drew his sword high over head, preparing for a massive swing downward. Ifrit's red eyes drifted upwards and saw the samurai just before the blade came down.

"HYAA!" Jack shouted. His blade caught the ebony claws of the demon's right arm with a loud, metallic clash. Seth came in to deliver a blow from farther away with his sword, swinging it horizontally, but Ifrit again blocked simply by extending his fingers, thumb folded in, and caught the blade with his own onyx nails.

"Retreat!" Seth commanded. Jack landed on the ground and noticed a rushing blur of gray behind Ifrit. The demon was drawing his arms slowly up and whipping his tail with dangerous speed at Jack. Jack backflipped over the tail and caught the ground with his hand. Then, before Ifrit could wind up a powerful enough punch, he pushed himself away and back to where he started.

"He can block our attacks" Jack noted "with just his hands!"

"He's strong" Seth added. "I'd imagine that he'd have to be, but Jack, we don't just have our blades do we?" Jack peered over curiously, then the realization came. The Gem of Fire! They could use it if they could harness its energy. Seth took the Gem out and clutched it hard in his left hand, staying his blade in his right.

"You don't have the right" Ifrit warned "to wield that power! Surrender it!" Ifrit started to charge. His speed was disproportionate to his massive, muscular size, but his animal legs provided more than enough power to break the ground as he ran. His tail whipped around fluidly behind him, throwing the air around as it flailed.

"Pass!" Jack called. Seth threw the Gem to Jack just as Ifrit came upon them and Jack broke out into a ran as soon as he caught it. Ifrit slammed his feet into the ground, right inside Seth's attack radius. Seth made a swipe for Ifrit and scraped the stone-hard surface of the demon's chest.

"It doesn't even phase him!" Seth fearfully noted. Ifrit turned his head to the retreating Jack, still visible as a fleeing white in a field of gray. He stomped around, his tail whipping out and lashing into Seth's guarding sword, throwing the swordsman backwards as his feet skidded across the ground.

"Halt!" Ifrit demanded.

"This may work" Jack said anxiously. He stopped and spun around, pointing the Gem between his fingers and thumb at the quickly advancing demon. He forced a mighty flame to roar up within himself. He could feel his anger and his drive of destruction swell in his chest. The Gem started to glow bright red and swirled with a cloudy, dark-gray mist. Jack's arm started burning and an arcane fire whipped up out of nowhere. "Gah!" Jack groaned. It was starting to get hot and the demon continued coming.

"You cannot bend the will of fire so easily!" Ifrit called. "It is a task for beings much higher than you, mortal!"

"I have fought greater pain than this!" Jack stated. He held back his screams and let the heat pull some stray hairs from his loose top-knot. The fire continued accumulating as Ifrit approached until it reached a critical point and started singing Jack's arm. He drew his arm up in pain, then glared ahead with steely eyes of determination. He shot his arm forward and a swirling wave of blazing fire roared across the dead plain and exploded upon contact with the ashen-gray demon's body. Jack's arm smoked and singed for a few moments with the Gem still clutched tightly between his fingers and thumb. After a moment he opened his eyes and sniffed around.

"AH!" he shouted. He immediately dropped the Gem and started waving his arm around in pain. He threw it to the ground and blew on it in pain. Ifrit was blow far away, landing somewhere on the other side of the debris pile that used to be the towering spire of heat-blasted rock.

"Jack!" Seth shouted in excitement. Jack looked up as the man in black came rushing over with a look of sheer amazement on his face. "I knew you could do it! Hell, if there were anyone in the world, it would have been you!"

"Thank you, my friend" Jack said. He started panting and reached for the Gem, which was now searing hot. He drew his hand away and blew on it more. "I only wish the process to release the Gem's power was not so...painful." Seth extended a hand to help his friend up. Jack grabbed it with his other, unharmed hand and picked his sword up to sheathe it.

"What the hell!?" Kid shouted from a distance. "You...! I-How did you do that!? No one ever said you could do that!? What was that? Magic???"

"Calm down, old sailor" Seth said, glancing over. "It's not your concern."

"It will be in a minute!" Kid shouted. "Now that you've blown apart that weird lizard-looking fella', you're all mine! I'm gonna enjoy beating you two crapless and hauling you in for illegally hitching a ride on my boat!"

* * *

"GRAAAAH!!!" shouted the demonic voice of Ifrit. He was still very much alive and made it apparent by stomping over the mound of rubble and planting his mighty clawed demon's foot into the ground. His gray skin was ablaze with flames at his chest and exposed his demonic bone structure from outside. His core had turned into a perpetually embered, orange surface. "I care not to know how that happened, samurai. You should know this: I am not so easily defeated!"

"Jack" Seth whispered as he took up the Gem with his black gloved hands, "look at his torso. Perpahs it is no longer as durable?"

"It is possible" Jack said. "Let us attempt another attack like last time. I shall go in for the cut, while you threaten him from above with the Gem, if necessary."

"Let's go!" Seth shouted. He ran forward, waiting for Jack to catch up. His arm and hand still hurt, but the pain wasn't anything for him to be distracted by. Jack powered through it with his determination. Seth blasted ahead and jumped up. His jump was much higher and more powerful than Jack's was previously. He repositioned his sword in the air with his left hand at the pommel and right hand high up on the grip near the hand guard. The blade was facing down for a penetrating stab that would power through or into Ifrit's head.

"It's useless, children of sin" Ifrit proclaimed. He stomped forward at Jack with his mighty leg, hoping to throw him off balance. It partially worked, as Jack had to jump away from his target, but he was still ready to rush in. Ifrit then brought his thick tail up in a sweeping motion with his arm drawn down to punch Seth from above. Seth was determined to attack, so he brought the sword's hilt up to his face and readied his legs to land in a kneel when he had struck so he could stand on Ifrit's erect shoulders.

"It won't work!" Jack noted to himself. "What should I do!?" Jack looked around and saw nothing that could help him. All the grass was solid dust and with each step the mighty Ifrit took he only succeeded to scatter more of the ash into the air. Jack decided to be as prompt in his attack as he could.

"Take this!" Seth called. His sword tip met the fine stone skin of Ifrit's tail and stopped there. Ifrit then wound up his powerful arm and prepared for a backhand that would break most of Seth's body, but something stopped him. In the comforting warmth of his heated torso a chilling, stinging cold came suddenly. Ifrit stopped in his motion and looked down. His previously impenetrable skin had been sliced right between his translucently exposed ribs of black under the orange glow by Jack's sword. Jack had thrown it like a spear to keep the full flow of the attack without risking closing in on the powerful demon.

"Grr..." Ifrit growled. "So it seems that I am found out." He curled his tail around Seth's sword and threw it, along with him holding it in a death grip, away toward Jack. Seth spun around in the air to regain his balance and position tot he ground, then skidded to a stop next to his disarmed partner with a hand scraping the grass away into dust to slow him down. Ifrit grabbed Jack's sword with his rough, gray palm and yanked it out. Hot steam hissed from the wound as it closed up almost immediately. Ifrit took the sword to his eyes and gave it a quick inspection. "This blade is of blessed origin. Tell me, samurai, why do you align yourself with such malcontented company?" He tossed the sword back and Jack caught it above his head.

"I still do not understand you, demon" Jack said, glaring daggers while Seth took his sword in his right hand and placed it at his hip, blade behind him. "Our intent is completely pure and righteous. We aim to gather enough Gems to fight evenly with Aku, the greatest evil of the world, and along the way we hope to find the one who will be able to wield the White Gem against the monster of darkness. I do not see how any of what we are attempting is evil."

"I can see evil" Ifrit explained "in ways you cannot. I am able to see maliciousness as it drips like dew from a man's head to his feet. There is a swirling pool of black around the both of you."

"How can we trust a demon!?" Seth demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Ifrit. "You claim to trust the Gem to the righteous, but we can't leave the island alive? Are you such a hypocrite to deny us from saving the world!?"

"I have no reason for you to trust me" Ifrit admitted. "I cannot lie, it is not within my principals. However, I know what is true, and I have the power to deny you whatever I wish. Now, come at me if you wish. If you are willing to risk losing everything for your cause, I can only assume that it is righteous and I shall admit to my fault."

"He is noble in his speech" Jack observed. "I feel...that we can trust him."

"I won't trust him" Seth began "as far as I can throw him. If we can finish him then we can leave."

"How?" Kid asked. "You damn sure aren't hitching a ride with me, you know!"

"Gather the flames!" Ifrit roared. He brought his hands together in front of his chest and allowed a small spark to start picking up into a bellowing fire. "Stoke the furnace, burn the air, grant this one the gift of his father!" All the grass and petrified life of the island instantly blew into dust and started to rise into the air. "I summon **HELLFIRE!!!**" A strong gale picked up. All the gray dust rose up and formed a low cloud that came rolling and folding into itself until it became darker and darker. Eventually all the dust was in the sky, the island barren and smooth aside from the ancient rock formations of the mountains and the heap of black rubble that was once a mighty pillar. The green grass also lit afire and the ashes rose up instantly while the ground became charred and black beneath it.

"What is happening?" Jack asked.

"If that's a sign" Seth said, staring skyward "then I'd say nothing good." A massive black skull with angry eyes and sharp-curving horns appeared as the dust gathered into it. The skull moved its mouth as if it were breathing and yellow flares of embers rained down to the earth. As the golden flakes of fire touched Ifrit's skin it caught ablaze again. Jack and Seth swayed warily to avoid the rain of fire, deflcting what they could with their swords. Kid spun his spear as quickly as possible over his head for cover.

"Dammitall!" Kid cursed. "What did you two do!?"

"This is my power" Ifrit growled. He became totally engulfed with terrible flames. His skeletal structure of thick, black bones was visible though his burning body of fire. His horns grew and curved upwards, forming two pillars of ashen flame that brought a halo of tiny sparks hovering around his head. The end of his tail erupted in blazing red fire that extended far out behind him. "This is the rage of fire!" His transformation was now complete, and with a quaking roar his form exploded with amazingly bright flames that towered hight into the mouth of the black demon cloud.

"**Both of you**" Ifrit growled, "**prepare for eons of pain. The power of fire will burn you to ashes!!!**"

* * *

Despite their earlier tenacity, Jack and Seth were totally disadvantaged by the overflowing power of Ifrit. The ground around him roared with a swelling shade of flickering fire. The blaze was so bright that Jack could barely stand to keep his eyes on his enemy. The dry air failed to carry the heat with much power, but it still reached them both with a forceful push of power. They were hopelessly outmatched, it seemed.

"The Gem!" Seth noted. He took out the glowing red orb and held it up. It was glowing the same as when Jack invoked its power.

"Fight fire with fire!" Jack said. "Use it!"

"I will try" Seth said. He concentrated hard, but the harder he focused on the wrathful feeling of fire the hotter things became.

"Move!" Jack shouted. Seth looked away from the Gem and saw Ifrit charging at him in his infernal form. Seth started hopping, then dashing away as the demon barreled straight at him.

"Come back!" Ifrit demanded. "You know you can't get far!!!" Ifrit stopped with a stomp to the ground and brought the palms of his fiery hands together. Slowly, he pulled them apart and revealed a crackling stream of ethereal flame. It was like watching lightning slowly dance between his fingers, pulsing golden yellow and burning orange. The more he brought his hands apart the longer and faster that lightning danced, until there was enough of it that he started shakily bringing his hands back together. Streaks of golden lightning shot out at random, decimating the solid ground of the island.

"This power is too great!" Jack said. "Seth! You must act now!"

"Right!" Seth called back. He dodged a blast of the sparking fire that shot from Ifrit's hands and landed on the edge of a rock. Another shot of golden fire came at him suddenly. He took his sword and somehow managed to deflect it. The act brought all of Ifrit's attention to the man in black. "Here goes nothing" Seth said. He took the Gem tightly in hand and gripped it as tightly as he could. His hand started shaking involuntarily and brilliant red flames started to circle lovingly around his black arm.

"I can do this" Seth told himself. "Not hatred or rage, but determination. The flame within me does not burn out of pure hate, it burns with righteousness! A sense of pure duty, a flickering flame of vindicated drive! I can feel it! The spirit of fire is alive in me!" The fire picked up in a spectacular fashion, swirling around Seth and calming the very air around him. It was much more natural and controlled than Jack's destructive fire, and it didn't burn him at all. It stayed away from his skin enough to block out the rest of the manic heat that Ifrit produced.

"Barrier or no" Ifrit growled "I can destroy anything with my flames! **Prepare for the end, silver-haired swordsman!!! HELLBLAST!!!**" Ifrit clapped his hands together. All was still. The fires ceased raging for but a moment. To Jack and the panicking, overexposed and injured Swiftwind Kid, the world was stopped. Then a vicious wind restarted the flow of time and Ifrit shot his palms outward to Seth who stood on his toes with an air of pure, beautiful red fire all around him. A clap of incomprehensible explosive force rang out from the island of Hikami to the shores of the space port where the adventure had started. Half the island had been burned away in the blast.

As the light and doom settled slowly Jack could see all the amazing power that came from the single attack. Ifrit's fiery skin had died down and the flames reached barely centimeters into the air from his burning form. His halo was gone as well but Jack could see the embers floating slowly from his horns to his head. The one thing he couldn't see was the shadowy figure of Seth. There was just water and wind and a huge crater. Ifrit finally drew his arms back to his sides and turned his head with a huff.

"SETH!" Jack shouted in alarm. Ifrit slowly turned around, red eyes blazing out energy, and snarled at Jack.

"Pray, samurai" Ifrit said as he stomped with tightly-clenched fists towards the white-robed man. "You will be next!"


	5. Episode 5

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

V. Jack, Seth, and a Surly Sailor versus Ifrit Dajeen

* * *

"SETH!!!" Jack shouted in despair. In a flash of doom he, along with more than half the island's land, was gone. Burned beyond the limit of burning, Seth disappeared into the ashen nothing the demon Ifrit produced. Kid was finally able to tolerate the heat enough to stand but the resulting humidity that settled in from the rolling ocean waves made him groan internally.

"Dammit" Kid cursed. "That was...pretty damn amazing."

"It is over, samurai" Ifrit said. He raised his arm up and made a throwing wave to the side. "Without that menace to corrupt the world, I have gained victory. Now, I shall send my flames of justice down upon you. Steel your might!" Ifrit began stomping forward, his flames still casting a bright and hot light into the air all around him. Jack continued mourning the sudden loss of his comrade while Kid continued to watch in confused terror.

"Hey" Kid said to Jack. "Hey! Dammit, pull yourself together! That big-guy's gonna kill you!" Jack was clutching his sword with both hands in a desperate attempt to stop its shaking, but it was really his hands that shook.

"I have never seen" Jack fearfully admitted "so much destructive power. I have faced down with Aku himself, and never have I imagined that such a monster could exist in this world. He is simply...too strong for me."

"Ah, screw all that!" Kid shouted. He leaned down and grabbed Jack's collar to draw his attention to his gruff and angry face. "You're Samurai Jack, you pansy! Buck up and fight! If you don't even try, then why did you instigate this guy!?"

"I-"

"Ah forget you!" Kid shouted. He took his spear and started marching toward the huge demon. A lump formed in his throat, but rather than fearfully swallow it, he forced it up and spit it out like a man.

"Stand aside, seafarer" Ifrit calmly ordered. He stopped as Kid stopped, and they faced each other down for a moment. "I have no quarrel with you. You are a just and noble man."

"Thanks" Kid said "but that guy over there is Samurai Jack. He's been trying to take down that tall, dark and evil overlord of the universe Aku since before your daddy was born! Now I ain't one to go supporting criminals, hell I'm a part-time bounty hunter, but I know a good man when I see one. If you don't reconsider your judgment on him over there, well then, you and me will _have_ a damn quarrel!" Ifrit looked long and hard at his defiant protester. Finally, he looked past him to the now standing samurai. His eyes were void of the previous despair and sorrow and were now filled with a roaring flame of righteous might. They were eyes of a man on a quest, but even through his own demonic vision Ifrit could not discern whether the quest was just or not.

"All I see is a swordsman" Ifrit growled "who's life begs for release. And now that you support him, I see a frightened little man who is in need of punishment!" Ifrit started moving his fiery tail around behind him in preparation to attack. Kid fearlessly spun his spear around over his shoulders and about his arms while lowering himself to a crouch. Ifrit whipped his tail around his side just as Kid stabbed and leaped away. The attack had pierced through Ifrit's soft, fiery flesh and threw sparks off of Kid's spear. The jump Kid made was powerful and high, so much so that it took a full four seconds for him to reach the ground next to Jack. When he landed in a low crouch with one hand to the ground and his spear horizontal behind him, he raised up smugly and grazed his nose with his thumb. Ifrit clutched his cut abdomen and growled.

"That was impressive" Jack flatly praised.

"Thanks" Kid said. "You know, I'm sorry about that guy. He seemed nice enough, but I guess he couldn't take the heat. Anyway, I do expect you to pay for a shipping fare, alright? I don't tolerate stowaways."

"I understand" Jack said with a solemn tone. He gripped his sword tightly and raised it back up with a straight back to his face. Kid kept his spear behind him, then raised his arms up to spin it and switch hands with flair and grace. Jack on the left, Kid on the right. Ifrit chose his options wisely and stomped the ground. It broke apart into a fine webbing of cracks where molten heat started shooting up. The cracks worked their way over to the duo, who staggered apart, then jumped away. Ifrit was now outflanked by either fighter as they both came rushing in. Jack was faster, however, and more agile. Ifrit turned to Jack as he hopped slowly away in retreat. Jack started swinging as soon as he was able. Ifrit's nails were still iron sharp, but Jack wasn't letting them impact with his sword as much as before. Now he swung for Ifrit's bright orange skin and made several shallow cuts near the demon's left wrist.

"Garh!" Ifrit growled in pain. Just as Kid came within accurate stabbing distance, perching his spear upon his shoulders and shooting it like a tricky pool-cue, Ifrit jumped far away and landed with a loud crash to the ground where the two had started out. He turned around, scraping the gray ground with his talons of one foot, and held his hand up lazily with his index finger uncurled from a fist. Jack and Kid looked curiously as Ifrit made no motion, then at once he flicked his wrist and motioned with his index finger for them to come. Jack complied and started running, ignoring the rumbling of the heaving earth underneath him. Kid was sent reeling in a panicked mis-step while the molten rock started bubbling up to the surface all around him, then he jumped high and far to rejoin Jack on the offensive.

* * *

_You are one with the universe._

_You are one with your sword._

_Rise up, young *******, become a legend._

_Refuse your death. You shall not---_

Suddenly the voices from nowhere stopped as mysteriously as they had begun. So many indescribably nostalgic voices, such deep feelings of deja vu, so much strangeness had just occurred. First the invocation of the perfect flame, now Seth found himself floating with a constant stream of scarlet fire floating around him. He couldn't breath for some odd reason, as he was in the water, but the flames kept going. Now with his mind conscious again he started swimming up to the surface, hoping as loudly as he could without letting out a breath of precious air that Jack had managed to stay alive.

"BWAH!" Seth shouted as he surfaced. He took in many deep and relieved breaths as he floated around in a slow panic. He searched slowly for a shore but saw nothing but sea. Then he turned around and saw the giant cut that had been made by the Hellfire inferno that consumed him just moments earlier and a demonic black skull high above the gray plains of Hikami island.

"Hang on Jack!" Seth called. "I'm coming...if I can find my sword..." Seth looked around on his person but had no luck in finding his long blade. He feared that it had sunken all the way down to the unseen and obliterated ocean floor. Then he was blinded by a metallic glare cast from the edge of the decimated island's new shoreline. There was his sword, long and fine, sticking from the ground with the handle in the air, almost taunting him to come and take it up once more. Seth started swimming with a sudden rush of adrenaline and kept the flame of power burning brilliantly all around him as he went. His magical fire couldn't be drowned by water or dread, it was an endlessly burning aura of fierce determination!

As Seth swam to shore Jack and Kid continued their fight with the monster Ifrit. Kid stabbed in and Ifrit deflected with his sharp nails. Jack swiped left and Ifrit pushed his sword away. Another swipe right and Ifrit pushed the sword down. Jack continued endlessly swinging in horizontal sweeps while Ifrit multi-tasked, trying hard to black and parry both attackers at once while his legs were pinned to the ground.

"You are both incredibly tenacious" Ifrit admitted. "I cannot rightly allow evil like that to live!"

"Dammitall!" Kid shouted. "I ain't evil! And he probably isn't either!"

"I most certainly am not" Jack defended. He finally managed to swing hard enough to throw Ifrit's guard away from his center where it was easy to maneuver his arm around. Jack made a slice and a stab, both of which hit his target, Ifrit's left knee joint. Then he stepped in, hoping to stab at the other bend that led down to the large-clawed foot, but Ifrit suddenly remembered his tail and threw it around. Jack was hit, straight in the chest, and was thrown away into the red-hot ember field of molten rock and smoke. Jack flipped around in the air and landed on his wooden sandals with a hot screech.

"Clever shrew" Ifrit growled. Kid continued stabbing as quick as he could and managed to edge his sharp spear-head between Ifrit's clawed fingers to cut into his soft hand. "GAAAHHH!!!"

"Take that!" Kid shouted. Ifrit drew his hand back far across his chest and delivered a huge wind-kicking backhand that Kid blocked with his spear. Still, he was thrown far away by the immense power of the demon's strong, muscular arm. Kid stabbed into the ground with his spear as he landed, skidding to a stop much quicker. "Well, at least I got him." Ifrit looked at the deep gash in his hand as it oozed liquid heat. His bright orange blood trickled thickly down his thick-skinned palm. He tried to clutch his hand into a fist but the pain was excruciating. Instead, he brought his fingers together tight and called upon his internal fire powers to wrap a tight bond of malleable flames around his hand to keep his sharp nails close together without the thought of his fingers floating apart and a repeat of the previous injury from happening.

"HIYAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Jack roared. He was running forward with his sword up and mouth wide open in rage. Ifrit brought his bound right hand up in its flat position, ready to defend whatever Jack threw at him. Unfortunately he didn't see what Kid was throwing at him.

"**Dragoon Jump!!!"** he roared. He was up high in the air, spinning his spear overhead in both hands. Then he stopped it, positioned it low with his knees curled all the way to his lower chest, and aimed the tip at Ifrit's head while setting the other end on his foot. Ifrit's attention was split in two unfortunate directions. He planned as quickly as he could. When Jack swung down he did so prematurely, forcing Ifrit to bring his nails up in a block. Then Jack stomped down on his injured hand, forced him to wince, and made a jumping thrust for his face. Ifrit brought his other hand up to catch the blade with all five of his strong, iron nails, but now he was defenseless from above.

"**Dragoon Lightning!!!"** Kid called. He kicked his spear, sending it down like a bolt of metal lightning on a course that would carve the demon's head in two. Ifrit looked up in dread and roared. Thinking in a split second, he brought his tail up to block once again, willing to sacrifice his powerful extra limb for another moment of combat.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!!" Seth roared. He came from behind, sword swirling with his deep-red fire energy, and made a flashing swipe at Ifrit's back. The mighty tail of the demon fell to the ground just as he prepared to raise it. He looked down and saw Seth bringing his sword around to his right hip in a sheathing motion. He drew the sword slowly into the clip of his belt and turned his pale green eyes onto the doomed demon.

"**GRAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!"** Ifrit screamed with rage. Kid's spear shot down and pierced deep into his chest, just between the collar bone and the neck. It dug straight through his blazing-hot skin and scraped the surface of his stone-hard bones, the bladed tip reaching all the way into the demon's left hip. Ifrit couldn't bring himself to howl in pain, knowing that real pain was on its way down already. Jack jumped up and away from Ifrit's defeated guard and at the spear. Kid, meanwhile, was falling down with his legs aimed at the end of his spear. Both had the same idea.

"Let us let lightning" Jack said "strike twice!" He stepped up onto Ifrit's shoulder and grabbed a hold of the heated spear, then threw it up into the air. Kid grabbed it on his way down and made another stab for Ifrit's head, missing only slightly and carving one of his huge, mighty horns off.

The embers of the battlefield all began dying down into soft ashen gray. The demon was defeated.

* * *

"Whoo!" Kid shouted in relief. "That was a huge rush! Damn! I should fight monsters more often!" Kid was leaned against one of the very few remaining rocks that wasn't covered in molten slime with his spear shoved in the ground next to him. He was smoking a cigarette he lit off of Ifrit's still hot body that was laid out in respect as per Jack's wishes. Ifrit was not yet dead, but from his taxing breaths and rapid bleeding it was obvious that he would be dead very soon. Just less time for Jack to pay his warrior's debt.

"I cannot regret what I have done" Jack said nobly. "You attempted to kill both I and my friend on our most noble and righteous quest."

"I defend" Ifrit said breathlessly from his still softly-glowing fanged mouth "that you resonate with an air of evil. You will see...I hope, the folly of your ways."

"Silence, demon" Seth demanded. "We have won rightful claim to this Gem. Now, tell us where we can find the next one!"

"Very well" Ifrit said. "Unlike you, silver-haired one, I have some honor to the greater good. If you have a valiant heart and a just cause to triumph over the greater evils of the world, then you will surely succeed."

"Didn't I tell you already!?" Kid shouted, adding himself to the conversation. "Jack is the most righteous and innocent bastard in the whole damn cosmos."

"Thank you for that" Jack said lowly. "Now, please, tell us where we may find another Gem."

"Under a sky of perpetual storms" Ifrit said in his death-throes, "there lives an immortal being in the guise of a mighty bird. His name is...Ramuh. He will allow the Gem only to the wisest beings...and he shall smite...the unjust...go there...to the land...of never...ending...**lightning.**" He was dead now. A monster that died a warrior's death. Jack brought his hands up and clapped them together before his face. Then he bowed silently. Seth looked at him strangely and thought of how ridiculous it was to honor a demon like Ifrit, but then considered the standing Jack had. He was an ancient, honorable warrior who had never done wrong in the eyes of the innocent people. If he would take time to honor the dead, why shouldn't Seth? Seth therefore bowed down with his hands together and made a silent prayed of forgiveness.

"A land of never ending lightning" Seth repeated as he and Jack met eyes once more. "Where could that be?"

"My friend" Jack began in utter amazement, "I still cannot believe that you survived."

"Pshaw!" Seth said in a fake scoff. "It was nothing. A weak breeze at best!"

"Nice acting" Kid said as he raised himself up by his spear. "That was hell in a damn bottle! He blew apart the island! Now what good is this place? At least before the petrified grass and crap was interesting to look at!" Then, suddenly, the sky started to twist and contort in strange ways. Ifrit's body was blown into red ash and embers that were all carried by the wind out to sea, and the sky of black, flaming smoke he made with his Hellfire heat started to fall. The cloud of the demon's skull was no more, as a black rain started falling from above. The three men ran for cover under an outcropping of rock and watched as the soot stained the earth all around them.

"Now what?" Seth asked.

"I suppose" Jack said "it couldn't stay up there forever. It had to come down some time, right?"

"Wait a minute" Kid said slowly. "What's going on?" Kid brought the attention of Jack and Seth back to the open ground. The soot that was covering the island began to produce the strangest of all things: life. Grass and flowers started blooming rapidly, growing full and rich with deep color and healthy glow. Trees grew instantly from tiny saplings and started swaying in the breeze. At length the black rain stopped and the party set out to see just what had happened. It was a shower of life, the ashes of the old bringing up a crop of the new!

"I understand" Jack said distantly. "The element of 'fire' is associated with the aspect of 'life', like the Phoenix which is reborn from its own ashes. These are flames of life that rain down, not of death and destruction."

"But Ifrit was a destructive monster" Seth argued. "He obliterated half the island!" Seth then remembered the platform where he and Jack found the demon. It was the only part of the entire island that had any life on it at all. Everything else was ancient and dead. "Ah! I get it too! But then, what about the missing part of the island?"

"It ain't missing" Kid said "that's for sure." Jack and Seth noticed Kid had jumped high up on top of a jagged rock face and they followed up. When they reached the top they saw a beautiful gathering of aquatic plants that formed a huge, swamp-like lagoon of brilliant green and red. Fish and mammals of all kinds had come from out of nowhere to feast upon the water buffet, and may of them came crawling up to the land in search of even more delicious new food. Birds came flying in from the far coasts to populate the tree-covered isle. The mountains even picked up a healthy earthen brown color with odd patches of green and long wooden branches growing out into the air.

"It's amazing" Seth said in total awe. "By god, it's beautiful."

"Where is your ship?" Jack asked Kid, as he had seen many similar amazing things in his life so as not to be needlessly absorbed in the moment. Kid looked at him for a moment then searched the far shore with a telescope from his sailing jacket. It was...gone. He lowered his looking glass and started growling.

"DAMMITALL, FROGGY!!!" he shouted to the high heavens.

The Gem of Fire has been obtained and the demon Ifrit Dajeen slain. Now the journey to the far away land of never-ending lighting begins!!!


	6. Episode 6

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

VI. Jack and the City of Lightning

* * *

"DAMITALL!!!" Exclaimed Swiftwind Kid the sailor. "Two days adrift on the ocean, barely any food to eat from that island, I thought those guys were nice and hospitable, but dammit they left me to hang out here by myself with no money and no damn RESPECT!!!" Over the course of the last few days a myriad of curious onlookers came by to Himaki island to see its resorted state. Environmentalists camped out to protest the harvest of the miraculously restored land and barred anyone from leaving or entering the island's coast. After a series of strange escapades and wholly abnormal situations, Jack, Seth and Kid were finally able to procure a boat and enough supplies to last them the three days it would require to row back to shore.

Two days later a huge freight ship carrying supplies bound for the exact land that Jack and Seth would set out for passed by the boat. With Kid asleep Jack had to abandon his honor and his debt to the sailor by jumping ship and stowing away on a new one. Kid was now to shore, cursing into the wind, with his cigarette flame flickering in the salty breeze. His ship had sprung a leak upon hitting the docks and now he was stuck, somewhere miles down the tide from his original disembarking point in a tiny, earthly village of mostly old people.

"Those bastards" Kid cursed again. "I hope to never see them again for as long as I-"

"Excuse me" an older, stout woman asked. Kid turned and paid his attention to the waddling old gal with her hair up in a bouncing bun and an expensive looking dress of flowery patterns. "Your name is Swiftwind Kid, correct?"

"Yes ma'am" Kid answered. "That is who I most certainly am. What can I do for you?"

"Well" the girlish-voiced lady began, "there's a man looking for you. A big man, wearing a sort of suit. I think he may be in some kind of mob. Are you in trouble, sir?" Kid looked at her flatly and adjusted his cigarette with his tongue. He turned around to put out the stick and stood up in his dirty suspender-held jeans and salt-stained work shirt. "If you need hiding, I would be glad to help you. My basement can certainly keep you off the 'radar', so to speak, long enough for me to convince the man that you've gone and-"

"No, that's alright" Kid said as he turned. "I know this guy. He's...he's a friend. It's got nothing to do with the mob or anything." The lady gave him a long, concerned gaze and then finally spoke up.

"I see" she said. "He must be an old 'sailor buddy', right? Well he's in my house waiting for you...but do try to keep your reunion a bit brief, please." Kid was appalled that she jumped to that conclusion so fast but she shuffled herself away before he could begin a very winded and angry rebuttal.

"Dammit" he cursed with tightened teeth. One short walk into the village later he arrived at the old woman's home and entered. Sure enough, a huge man was sitting behind a coffee table, covered in shadows. He was more wide at the shoulders than at the gut and tall to boot with a bowler-derby hat on his head. His brown tuxedo was custom-fitted for his huge stature and two white gloves covered his meaty hands.

"Hello" the man greeted in a booming bravado, "Sydney."

"Only two people can call me that" Kid defended strongly "and they're dead, okay? I told you once and I meant it then: I'm not interested."

"At least hear me out" the man offered, holding his hands out in offering.

"No!" Kid demanded. A short silence followed, the heat between the two men clashing and stirring the air in the room. "I ain't doing crap for you, okay? Get it in your head. I swore on my friend's lives that the first mistake would be my last with you guys. I'm out of the group for good now and nothing can change that."

"There are no arrangements" the man began "that we can make for you? No cushy chairman position or a paid vacation to the southern states?"

"Nothing doing" Kid said defensively. "Now I'd appreciate it if you would leave, for good! This is a nice place, dammit, and a man like you should just steer clear of it!"

"A man like me..." the man repeated slowly. He clutched his right hand hard, mechanics and gears whirring beneath the glove. "And what kind of man am I? A broken one? A vindictive one? A persistent one? Stop me if I'm right."

"You're a terrorist" Kid said. The man looked up with sharp and flat brown eyes. "What you and your people do is despicable. You harm innocent people every day and do more damage than measured good. If I weren't in such debt myself I'd have half a mind to go straight to Aku and rat your asses out!"

"And yet" the man said suavely, "despite all the pressure to do so you remain adrift in a sea of your own meticulous making. You have taken on the life of a seafarer because you honestly believe in what we have taught you. You know that we are right, and that what we are doing will ultimately result in good."

"The end" Kid said "doesn't justify the means, dammit." Kid pointed a steady, stern finger at the shadowed man and made a powerful statement. "Stay the hell away from me from now on. **LANDSLIDE** is done for and you know it."

"We aren't dead yet" the man said, raising up from his small couch seat, "and as long as we can pull the tiniest sliver of breath form the air we will continue to fight."

"Whatever" Kid dejected. He turned around, arms crossed, and waited for the man to lumber out of the house. The floor shook with his steps and the door closed quietly as he exited into the cloudy afternoon air. That man boarded a long hovercar, driven by a robotic chauffeur, and he sped beyond the rolling hills. Kid had a bad taste in his mouth form the encounter, so he took out a cigarette, stepped onto the deck of the house and lit it. "I hope you can speed up here, Samurai boy" he said to the sky, puffing from his cigarette. "The way things are going, this world is in for a whole new rain of crap..."

* * *

"Prepare to dock!" the bulbous alien captain of the smog-stack ship ordered. "Prepare for docking now!" Men in jumpsuits of blue and white were running around in a panic, picking up boxes and setting them back down again. Men and male aliens with custom fitted suits all worked tirelessly to get their cargo to the sides of the ship for easy loading and unloading by the dock workers. Two workers wearing matching baseball hats in particular were moving with an incredible amount of verve and energy.

"Where are our swords?" the shorter one asked.

"I've got them here" the taller one with a silver ponytail said, shaking the long box he held. It was marked for express delivery on the side in bold, alien-scripted letters. "Our clothes are in here too. Where's the Gem?"

"It is well hidden" the shorter one said in a very precise and honorable voice. "Do not worry about that. Now, how will we retrieve our equipment in time?"

"I know exactly where it's going" the tall one whispered. "We'll hop off this boat and make our way there in time to get it back, and then we'll go find the next Gem holder."

"Right" the other agreed. They walked past each other and continued moving the boxes on deck. When the task was done and all the boxes were gone the workers were exhausted. Not one was standing. In fact, two of them were outright gone.

"Weren't there two new guys here?" A large red alien asked a human worker.

"Hell, I don't know" the man said, adjusting the brim of his hat. Those two had gone ahead and changed uniforms again, making their way to the city in the distance in perfect disguises.

El Relámpago Cuidad, the Lightning City. A massive metropolis built out of conductive metal. First created in the intense magnetic region near the Polar Belt of the far north by alien energy vampires. They used the buildings as conductive energy magnets to store electricity and raw natural power. Now it is the main hub of naturally harvested energy in the entire northern hemisphere, one giant electric conduit grid that harvests the dangerous power of the planet's strongest and most lethal lightning storms. The city heights are so loud with the endless crackle of lightning that a sound-proof energy field must be maintained at all times so the deafening roars don't reach the delicate ears of the citizens living below. The metal of all the structures is so dangerous but essential to the city's prosperity that it has been since remodeled and given a thick shell in every building to prevent widespread death by electrocution.

There is a saying among the lower-class in this city, and that is 'the streets are paved with bright gold'! The saying originated when the original founders and city planners built the conduits and circuit panels into the streets and sidewalks, just under the stone and concrete of the pavement where short bursts of electric energy would sometimes shoot up in little nebulous clouds. It always seemed to rain but the rain never reached past the sound barrier, giving it two essential uses in one. While the energy barrier did separate the sound from the sky and the people it did not bar any lightning from the city limits. The energy was drawn to the high metal rods built from the tops of each sky-scraping structure and traveled through the metal of the building infrastructures to the ground where it traveled through a long and winding circuit path to the main generator facility where the electricity is dispensed throughout the city and stored in liquid-energy cells for mass consumption throughout the world.

Here is where the next Gem is hidden, in the land where lightning never ends, an eternal shower of heavenly doom that bombards the scorched-black mountain sides and blasts apart the fools too hard-headed to be reasonable that travel outside the protected city limits. Jack and Seth, hiding in plain sight as noble monks dressed in blue robes with gold trim, disembarked from the bus that brought them into town to find the address where they would reunite with their necessities.

"I believe" Seth said, looking around the busy city streets where people walked in a stream flooded by technology, "we need to head south from here."

"Very well" Jack agreed. "Which was is south?" His optimistic smile and wandering eyes drew out a nervous sense of self dissatisfaction from Seth. He had no earthly idea.

"Hey yo!" a street-wise young alien shouted at the two. He was flanked on two sides by large human guards. "Man, look at these fools!" the blue skinned, crooked-toothed young one exclaimed to his friends. "They look like they just got out the shower! HA!" His thuggish friends started chuckling in their deep voices while he laughed annoyingly to encourage them. Seth wanted to ignore them, his patience already at its limit of toleration, but Jack was a different breed of man, He approached them.

"Excuse me, young man" Jack politely said, "but can you help us? We are trying to navigate through town, and we have never been here before. Could you simply point us in a southern direction?"

"What's wrong with your voice?" the teen asked, raising up his shades to get a good look at the smiling face of the man under the hood. Something about that square jaw gave him a nostalgic twitch, but he couldn't place it anywhere. "What, you stupid or something? There is no south, or north or east or west! You can't use a damn compass in this city, yo, the electric storms screw up the magnetism all over the place, yo!"

"Storm Stopper?" Seth repeated. "The barrier?"

"Yeah, fool" one of the deep-voiced thugs confirmed.

"We" Jack began "will have to find our way based on the address then."

"I remember it" Seth said. "No problem. Now...which way is Nozink'plemdo drive?"

"I GOT IT!" the young alien man exclaimed. "You, yo you, I know who you are!!!" The unexpected commotion alerted a group of patrolling guards wielding electric taser-guns made in the city itself. "Yeah, you that fool, right? That guy who goes around, says he's from the past and stuff. Man, I know who you are now! It took me a second though, but I got it now, yo!"

"Jack" Seth whispered. He tilted his head toward the guards who were walking across the street, alerting Jack to their presence and the danger of what the young man was about to say.

"You're Samurai-" Jack slapped his hand onto the kid's face just before he could finish. The guards made their way over to Seth and closed in on Jack.

"Sir?" one asked. "May we ask just what is going on here?" Jack started to sweat. With no way to defend himself save the magical Gem of uncontrollable destructive power, he knew the guards would easily capture him and haul him away. Seth sense his tension and started formulating a plan.

"Yeah officer" the young man said after prying Jack's had off his face, "I can 'esplain' just what's happening here. You see, this man here" and Jack and Seth held their breath while Jack prepared to run "is a traveling priest, see, from another planet or something. It's a greeting to put your hand across somone's mouth. I learned that in my civics class yesterday." The innocence of youth had won the day. The guards, utterly apathetic to something that wasn't really trouble, departed. Jack and Seth gave heaving sighs of relief.

"Thank you" Jack said with great modesty "my young friend."

"No sweat man" the kid said, pulling his shades back down. "Hey, listen, I know this city like the back of my hand, right? I can get you anywhere you need to go like that" he gloated with a snap. "And for Samurai Jack, the greatest playa in the whole dang universe, I'll do it for free!"

"Are you serious!?" Seth exclaimed, keeping his voice low enough in case the cops came back around. "Oh, thank you kid. I can't tell you how relieved we are for this!"

"Yo, who's this we?" the kid asked.

"Huh?" Seth grunted.

"You ain't Samurai Jack" the kid said, pushing himself close to Seth's face. "In fact, you ain't even jack, you ain't nothing!"

"Please" Jack pleaded. "He is with me. We are on a mission to retrieve an ancient and powerful artifact to be used against Aku, and our equipment has been taken to a safe location in this city. Unfortunately, we don't quite know where. If you could take both of us there based on my friend's memory, I would be glad to repay you with a favor."

"Hmm..." the kid hummed. Taking Jack for free was a no-brainer, he was a legend and a hero, but the other man was a total stranger. One not to be trusted by the youths of the city. "Alright, I'll take him too...but I want that fly coat he's wearing!"

"Deal" Seth agreed. He lowered his robe and let his hair hang down. "Can I give it to you once we're there, though? All of my clothes are in the same place, if you get it."

"Aww" the kid groaned with disgust. "A'ight, deal. Mumps! Go get the car! The big one!"

"Okay" the right thug agreed. He went running down the street and went around the corner to get a car parked at the curb. With transportation and a place to go, Jack and Seth were just one step away form being two steps closer to their ultimate goal and unparalleled victory.

* * *

Elsewhere in the city, at a particularly lavish and gilded building resting on Nozink'plemdo drive, a package arrived. A plump and thick woman in curlers and a wonderful evening robe stepped onto the porch to receive the gift in question, only to spurn it with her glare and hand it back.

"I didn't order this!" she protested. The simple delivery man let the box fall back into his stick-thin arms, then moved it forward again. The woman slapped his hands as they tried to deliver the package again, and he drew back. Then after another second he moved the package forward again only to have his hands slapped again. And then again it happened. And again. This painfully stupid process repeated itself until the woman became outraged and slammed to door in the man's face, but his persistence refused to let him quit. He rang the doorbell and waited. This time a servant with a swooped-up nose answered the door and commenced to slapping the delivery boy's hands as rapidly as the delivery was attempted.

Hopefully this process would take the adequate time required for Jack and Seth to arrive from far, far downtown.


	7. Episode 7

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

VII. The Flighty Fight

* * *

Through the air the car flew. Two huge thugs driving up front while their kid leader chilled in the back with the hero Jack and the unknown Seth. He was fond of Jack, trading him grins of crooked-yellow teeth and laughs of excitement.

"I can't believe this, man" the kid said. "Me! Cruising in a car with Samurai Jack. Man, life is good."

"How long" Seth began asking "until we get there?"

"Eeeeasy, little Silver-locks" the kid said. "It's just a breeze away. No problem at all."

"Hey boss" one of the thugs said, "we've got company."

"What kind of company?" Jack asked. The whizzing and metal-grazing pings of laser bullets answered his question. Jack stood up on the leather frame of the cushions, as did the kid, to look behind them at the fleet of pursuing cars filled with angry aliens of various shapes and sizes, all wearing bandanas over the area where their mouth would theoretically be. They all had cocked laser guns and were aiming down the low-riding hover car that Jack and Seth were passengers of.

"What is going on?" Jack asked.

"Is this some kind of gang war?" Seth added.

"Yeah" the kid said, lounging back into his seat. "This happens from time to time. It ain't no problem for me and my boys. Mumbles, blast 'em." The shotgun riding thug pulled out, of all things, a laser shotgun and blasted several rounds at the chasing car, finally hitting its motors and forcing it into a slow descent to the ground. "See? Those guys got no game!"

"What about them?" Seth asked, pointing to an armada of tricked-out cruisers brimming with the multi-colored, multi-shaped aliens in street clothes. Laser bullets fired out in a colorful barrage that shook the comparatively tiny craft. The shotgun was shot out of Mumbles' hand, to which he turned to his superior in the back seat and mumbled.

"Damn!" the kid exclaimed. "Jack, use you super-Samurai powers, or something!"

"My sword is not with me" Jack said regretfully. "Otherwise I would already be protecting us."

"We're defenseless" Seth sighed. "Maybe we should dive down and try to get the guards or police involved."

"Don't be stupid" the kid said. "Does this look like something a couple cops can stop? Nah, we're on our own right now." Jack was deep in thought. He placed his hands within the sleeves of his robe and folded his arms together.

"Perhaps we may not be so helpless" Jack said, pulling out the glowing Red gem from his sleeve.

"When did you keep that?" Seth asked.

"I had a hunch" Jack said "that we would need too hold onto it in a city like this." Jack stood up and his hood caught the wind, whipping off and revealing to the delinquents just who they were messing with.

"Samurai Jack!?" one shouted at a momentary cease fire.

"Oh, crap!" another shouted. "We're screwed now!"

"Are you nuts!?" the apparent leader with a long head and blue bandana yelled. "If we take that punk kid down, we can bag the samurai too! We'll be the richest gang in the galaxy!"

"Fire!" someone shouted. The laser blasts resumed while Jack began his meditative breathing with the Gem tightly gripped in his fist. A cloud of red began forming around him and rushing currents of energy began flying in from thin air. The power was gathering and Jack's emotions became like fire, a righteous destructive burning in his heart, the feeling of a conqueror with the power to destroy every obstacle and turn to cinders every wall.

"What's he doing?" the kid asked as he watched his idol breathing slowly.

"He is awakening his inner fire" Seth said. "It'd be best not to disturb him so he doesn't accidentally explode all of us." The casual tone Seth took with the threat of a very real death only made the kid sink uncomfortably into his seat and paw his hands at the back of the leather. Lasers continued to skim the surface of the car, blasting off the protective, reflective pain and denting the hull while Jack just stood among them not getting hit.

"I have it!" Jack said. He opened his palm and revealed a bright, burning ball of pure, swirling flames! The core was the Gem, radiating the magical heat that fueled the fire, which Jack now held over his head. With a swing of his arm a trail of the flames followed the burning sphere, and with a powerful arm Jack threw the orb while closing his hand to keep the Gem. The fire trailed through the air and hit a car, and the a huge wall of flames exploded out and covered the other cars. A series of explosions soon followed, while Jack cooled himself by sitting back in his seat and handing the hot Gem off to Seth.

"Nicely done" Seth said.

"Thank you" Jack said, breathing out wisp of arcane smoke. The cars all fell downward and the aliens fell out of them as well. Fortunately, these creatures were of a race composed of an organic rubber, allowing them the consistency and malleability of rubber. Besides their weapons breaking from the fall, they went unharmed from hitting the ground and were all on their feet just soon enough to get arrested by the police who followed them.

"Damn that Samurai" the leader said as his hands were cuffed.

"NIIIIIIICE!!!!!" the kid cheered loudly. "Dude, where'd you learn to do that!?"

"It's the Gem" Seth explained. "It holds control of the mystical element of fire!"

"Sweet" the kid said. "You must've had to fight some hardcore bad-ass to get that thing, right? Like, some kind of dragon or super-demon?"

"The latter, actually" Jack admitted. Suddenly Mumps, the driver, turned around and mumbled something strange to his leader. It made the kid nod at first in recognition, then his eyes shot wide open in fear. "What is wrong?" Jack asked.

"More enemies?" Seth asked.

"The engines are crapping out is all" the kid said, "and our stabilizer is shot. Our gravity-matrix is haywire, and it's already inverted our main up/down guide."

"???" Jack gazed with intense curiosity.

"We're going down" Seth explained to his friend.

"Nah, worse" the kid said. "We're going **up!**" Suddenly the thunder was getting audible. Jack and Seth looked up to see that they ere swiftly drifting towards the energy barrier ceiling. Huge, loud blasts of lightning hit muted on the surface of the round, transparent shell. A deep sense of dread began washing over the car as it drifted very slowly into the uncontrollably loud skyline.

* * *

"Sir" an armored butler began with a primed laser, "I'm afraid that you are startling the madame. You're going to have to leave immediately." The dimwitted delivery man simply stood with his cap over his eyes, scratched his behind with one hand and handed the package over with the other. The butler sighed and slapped his armored face with an armored hand.

"Now what?" a maid asked.

"He is unmovable!" the butler said in distress. "We'll simply have to take the package and call it into the delivery company with a formal complaint."

"NO!" the houses madame demanded in a shrill voice. "I shall not concede to the likes of a blue-collar worker! We must put him in his place! Show him who is the higher class here! We will not take his business lying down!"

"You heard the madame" the butler said. He gently pushed the young man out of the doorway and slammed the door. The delivery boy just stepped forward again and began ringing the bell at rhythmically obnoxious intervals.

Elsewhere, namely far, far above the city-scape, Jack and company floated just above the electro-magnetic shield in their broken car. Ominous black clouds swirled overhead like a turbulent ocean in the sky, streaks of serpentine lightning crackling from cluster to luster of concentrated cloud. Jack looked cautiously. Seth was nervous. The kid between them covered his head with his arms in total fear.

"Why'd they stop?" he asked.

"A displacement" Seth began. Jack turned to him in preparation to learn. "The concentrated presence of our metal craft has caused a relative imbalance in this otherwise metal-free area. The lightning pattern is concentrating around us to strike at us, but since we're not grounded into the barrier or the ground like the lightning rods, we aren't getting hit quite yet."

"So once we touch the barrier" Jack assumed "the lightning will strike us immediately."

"DAMN!" the kid exclaimed. "What do we do?"

"At least we aren't still drifting up" Seth said. "The strong magnetic pull from the barrier is off-setting the push up..." Seth looked down below, the barrier only a few meters from the metal under-hull of the flying car, and the dark cloud-line surprising close by. A streak of lightning blasted out and hit a lightning rod just close enough to the car. It had to arc hard, as it seemed intended to hit the mobile craft, but the stronger pulses of the metal rods called the lightning in more warmly than the vehicle did. The chilling feeling of having death so close gave Seth a wildly brilliant idea. Seth took out the Gem, smiled at it, and began harnessing its powers.

"What's he doing?" the kid asked Jack. Before Jack could shrug the kid turned on his side and pointed up at Seth. "Yo, what'chu doing, man?"

"The static energy" Seth began "is moving through the air because it's cool. If we heat up the air, there's no way the lightning will hit us, and if I can get a big enough concentration of fir going, I might be able to use it to push us back down so we can park!"

"But the heat could kill you!" Jack warned. "Our robes are barely suitable for high winds alone! The lightning and fire will surely reduce what armor you have from the elements!"

"A few burns" Seth began "are nothing in the path of our ultimate goal! I will gladly suffer that pain if I must, but until then I will do my absolute best to aid our quest in any way necessary!!!" A huge nimbus of burning embers began swirling around Seth's right hand as it was thrust up into the air. The glowing orbs zoomed into his glowing fist until it was shining a bright, hot white. Seth started groaning from the pain and the heat. Jack's hair became rough from the instant humidity and the kid sought shelter directly in front of the full-blast AC. Seth's groaning increased as the fire in his palm began forcing his hand open. Hot white flares snaked out and shook Seth's entire body with the sheer force.

"**HHHRAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!**" Seth roared. He opened his palm wide and let a giant pillar of hot-blue flames flare up and pierce the clouds. For the first time in unrecorded ages the streaks of pure sunlight were visible, but only above the hole Seth made in the clouds. A giant ball of fire illuminated the cityscape now, all of it coming from Seth's white-hot resolve. Jack covered himself with his robes and turned away, seeing the barrier drawing ever closer as the car was slowly forced down. Seth grit his teeth and groaned, feeling his energy quickly depleting from continuing the wicked magic. The air was heating up last the point where the clouds could form correctly and the lightning all but ceased around the inferno in the sky.

The brilliant fire was seen all throughout the city, lighting the otherwise dark alleys and city streets where only the neon glow of electricity was. Seth's **Sun Flare** nearly killed him in execution, but the reward of a safe emergence from the dangerous outside was worth his depleted energy.

The sudden increase in G-forces was an unwanted side-effect, however, as the heat blew out the engine and now the craft was on a collision course with the stately estate down on the ground...

* * *

"Delivery" the boy slurred.

"NO!" the entire waiting staff argued.

"It's for you" he said.

"**NO!**" they all demanded harshly. He simply handed the package over only to get it weakly shoved away by a tired maid.

"He'll never leave" she said as she panted. She straightened her slender back with a pop and rubbed the sorest spot. "I say we give up, madame."

"Weaklings!" the lady of the house growled. "Come here! I'll show you how to get rid of a pest!" The stout, wide woman plowed her way through her staff and marched upon the delivery boy. He attempted yet another hand-over, but she calmly pushed it back. He pushed it forward again and she impatiently but still subtly pushed it back at him. "Can't you hold this over at the station until tomorrow? I can't receive any packages today. You see, in my big old mansion, I haven't gotten any room for any more things. I wouldn't know what to do with this if you gave it to me, and I would have to return it to its sender! We don't want that to happen, do we?"

"..." the boy stared. Suddenly, unexpectedly, something caught his attention and made him turn his head. Astounded, the lady of the estate and her staff all turned their heads as well and saw an unearthly fireball traveling their way at a high speed.

"GO JACK!!!" the kid shouted from the back seat. Seth's hand had nearly blistered over with the searing burn of the fire, and now Jack used the Gem at the hood of the car using what was left of the overheated engine as a foothold while he made a counter-force of fire. Like a jet engine, the fire came in from behind and blasted out from the front in a blue blaze and a red roar. Jack only used a part of his power, lest he end up inoperative like Seth, but it was so far working well. "You show that air who's boss!"

"Please be my eyes" Jack shouted over his jet roar. "Is there anything in our way?"

"It's a city, man" the kid said as he grabbed onto the car door. "Of course there's gonna be something in the...!" He stopped mid sarcasm and saw the very princely estate where they were headed originally. "Yo Jack! We're here!"

"Where?" Jack asked. He felt it necessary to strobe the burner just long enough for him to see for himself. He saw a huge house and a panicking crowd of people running away from the meteor that was him. He nearly panicked and lost that spark of fire himself, sending the craft to the ground at an unsafe but survivable velocity. Jack acted quickly, grabbing both the kid and Seth while the two thugs prepared themselves to jump out by themselves. "Hang on tightly!" Jack ordered. The kid embraced him adamantly while Jack's cut arm held onto Seth slung over shoulder. The craft was on a collision for the grounds near the central fountain, and that's where Jack would jump when the moment was right...

* * *

After the crash, the wreckage, the twisting of metal and the whining of the car parts as they finally stopped rolling around. The waiting staff was laid out in a sprawl on the lawn, the explosive impact jarring them all from their former positions. The delivery boy emerged timidly from the house, leaivng the package inside, and ran away. The lady of the estate had passed out but was now regaining consciousness to the sight of a fire near her fountain.

"What in all blazes!?" she exclaimed. "Who set fire to my perfect lawn!?"

"Madame!" the armored butler with dents in his breastplate called. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" she growled. "Who is responsible for this mess?" Suddenly, a splash of water came from her fountain. A man stood up from the knee-deep water with his skin steaming and his black hair thrown down around his face to the end of his neck. His robes were greatly tattered, hanging to his waist out of wetness and not tightness.

He held under one arm an unconscious alien kid with blue skin and crooked teeth. Over his other shoulder he held the body of a man with long, silver hair that reached into the water and spread out like beautiful kelp. His robes were singed at the corners and mostly gone, though his stayed covered thanks to the luck of some bashful force in nature. In the grip of the tall, dark-haired man's hand, the one that held the silver-haired beauty, was a dim red sphere that seemed to pulse a dark light.

"Could it be him?" the butler asked.

"I know that man!" the lady shouted. She stood up with a somewhat graceful awe and looked at the glamorous Samurai with water reflecting the dangerous flames around him. He turned slowly towards the woman with a stern but kind look on his face and began walking. The kid stirred in his grip and pried himself loose, wanting to walk on his own. The two thugs rose simultaneously from the water and exited the fountain with their leader.

"That was whack, man" the kid said in a daze. "Damn...Life with you is hard!"

"Fighting evil" Jack said "is never easy. If it were, this future would not exist." With those profound words uttered Jack walked out into the ruined courtyard to the palace he and Seth were originally set out to find. Although tricky, and sometimes elusive, good luck always stood close by the timeless Samurai.


	8. Episode 8

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

VIII. Jack and the Mountains of Iron

* * *

After the chaos had died down and the police had been steered away by some quick claen-up work by the staff of the estate, Jack was able to breath easily. He had been invited into the home by the gracious lady who treated him like a celebrity coming directly to her home out of choice rather than the galaxy-wide recognized bounty head Samurai Jack. Seth was out cold from the amazing blast he had made to dampen their descent and Jack took it upon himself to hold the Gem for the time being. Now dressed in his regular garb with his faithful katana at his side, he felt like the hands of fate were truly guiding him along a dangerous road to heaven.

"Oh my" the lady oohed as she watched over her attendants tending to the injured Seth. "You two must be leading some very exciting life to come all the way here! Are you, per chance, after Aku's power plant industry now?"

"No" Jack answered, sitting across the room in a chair while Seth enjoyed the suite's huge, luxurious bed. Although, being unconscious, it was questionable whether he enjoyed it at all. "My friend and I are seeking a mystic artifact much like this one." Jack drew out the Gem and let it glow dimly in the light of the room. It's blazing red fire pattern shone light onto the floor and the walls nearby.

"How exquisite!" the lady enthused. "Where might you be looking for such a thing?"

"Anywhere possible" Jack said. "However, the possibility of such a thing existing in such a heavily controlled metropolis is slim. I would venture to guess that it lies somewhere outside the borders of the city."

"Oh dear" she said "out there? Beyond the shield? How mortifying! How dangerous! Only a man such as you would foolishly dream to go somewhere like that, of course."

"Well" Jack began "I suppose it does seem foolish. Dodging that lightning is not an easy task, I would imagine."

"That's not the problem" the head butler said. "You see, the ground outside the city limits is not any kind of composite rock material. It is pure iron." Jack became curiously surprised at this and walked across the room to listen more intently. "Aku found an important type of ore in these hills and mined them totally dry of it. Now only the iron he left behind, deeming it useless for its naturally strong magnetic charge, remains in those hills. They are constantly blasted with the electric energies of the torrential sky, and glow with a dangerous aura of electrocution."

"I don't pay you to prose" the lady growled softly. "Get this stunning young man in better shape immediately!"

"Please" Jack apologized, "you don't have to worry so much about he or I. We are strong. He has suffered worse than this, I'm sure. And my injuries are healed as well."

"Well you're obviously different" the lady said. "You are inhumanly strong. This beautiful man couldn't possibly be as rough and durable as you, Mr. Samurai. He's far too beauteous to possess such strength."

"Of course madam" the butler said with a sigh.

"I do not wish to impose myself on you" Jack said with a tone of apology. "I will return to see him in the morning."

"Nonsense!" the lady exclaimed. "You will stay here! The commotion you caused earlier has ensured that my estate will be under a constant state of surveillance. Neither of you can simply leave if you wish without getting caught. I insist that you stay here and rest away your own injuries while your friend fully recuperates!"

"But I must prepare" Jack said in defense.

"Not to worry" the lady said. She snapper her fingers and her butler went running out of the room. "I can easily acquire protective rubber insulation suits for you both to wear out into the wilderness. You will be fine." Jack blinked and then, out of exhaustion, fell onto the bed. His worries were lifted so suddenly that his mind was swimming and dizzy. It was a total head rush for the Samurai who was used to being constantly concerned with whatever waited around the corner, whoever wanted a piece of the limitless wealth Aku had to offer. Then, with those thoughts, his body regained its rigidity and he shot up to his feet.

"How am I to be certain" Jack began in a serious tone "that you are not attempting to sell me off to Aku in the night?"

"Oh please" the lady said, waving her hand. "When has anyone ever come close to succeeding in capturing you? I'm just an old woman, I don't stand a chance."

"Nor do I" the butler said, having returned and taking his place beside his employer. "Please consider us loyal to your cause, Master Samurai."

"What of the police?" Jack asked. "How could you hold them away for long?"

"It's called bribery, Mr. Samurai" the lady said with no hint of shame. I am one of the wealthier people in this very prestigious sector of the city. My money is better than my word, and so attaching my word to my money will give me an undoubted presence of authority!" Jack's worried continued to be unfounded and his mind continued into a foreign ease. He felt safe, which was greatly unusual for his life, but in a way he was also quite glad. So glad, in fact, that he decided to fall asleep of the floor for the night.

* * *

_What a handsome swordsman..._

This is the voice Seth woke up to in the middle of the night. All through his comatose slumber he had visions of his training from his own perspective, him mastering his stance, fighting his first opponent, and a fire, an uncontrollable fire in a village where dead bodies were lain as they were killed. He couldn't shake himself out of the dream fast enough and curled up in his bed, forgetting the pain he had accumulated from exhausting his body earlier and he doubled over his gut in terrible pain.

"Gaaaah!" he groaned softly. "What weird dreams I have...Well, I've already forgotten them now. Can't be helped, I suppose. Wait...where am I? Where is he?" Seth looked around slowly, so as not to stretch his neck, and saw the expansive, luxurious bedroom around him. Then he finally found his comrade Jack sleeping on the floor with his kimono robe over him like a blanket and a modest, dirty pillow under his head. How he came about it in such a rich house was unknown, but Seth was glad to see him alright.

"This is dangerous" Seth noted. "This quest I am taking, surely Jack can finish it if he wants, but me...I'm not strong enough quite yet. Perhaps once we acquire this next Gem I will persuade Jack to help me train for a short while. If we can fight well together our quest will only become easier." Racked with guilt of his inferior skill and endurance of his comrade, Seth slowly got himself out of bed and made his way over to his folded and neatly cleaned clothes and sword. He ignored the pain and took equipped them in the darkness of the night.

While Seth stirred the Samurai dreamed his constant dream of his past and his future. He relived the experience of his defeat that brought him to the ruined present of Aku's evil He saw the vicious images of the bounty hunters and other monsters who continued to attempt his life and the evil looming face of the demon in the distant darkness. Tonight, however, there was a break in the black clouds of Jack's mind, and he found himself in the chaotic ruins of some unknown metal city where huge piles of rubble carved a valley of smooth, concrete ground. Being dragged into a lucid state he began walking through the ruins, his footsteps fading out in the howling wind.

He continued through the meandering path of broken mountains until he came to a large clearing. At the center of the clearing was the crumbled remains of a single building surrounded by flat, grassy earth. Even the sky seemed dead but this single patch of ground had an abundance of ambient life. Jack warily waded through the short grass and listened to the serenity of his surroundings. An oasis in a dead land, a peaceful scene in an otherwise nightmarish setting. Jack approached the structure of broken wood, and as he did it began to rebuild itself. Piece by piece, step by step, the building repaired itself until Jack stood at its threshold, right under the arch.

A humble little church amidst the endless despair of the ruins. White walls and a red roof, made of half-decent wood on the outside and layered with pure white bricks on its floor. The pews were lined up so lovingly and leading down a narrow walk to a small altar. In front of that altar, a growth of flowers. Jack continued cautiously towards the flowers, but his sleep was disturbed by the slashing of metal against the air. Acting on instinct Jack rose from his sleep and gripped his sheathed blade at this side, only to see Seth practicing taking poses and swinging with his sword in the wide room. Jack sighed silently and stood up, bringing his kimono with him to wear in the cold room's air.

"Jack" Seth whispered, taking his sword down. "I'm sorry. I guess I sort of underestimated your warrior instincts, didn't I?"

"I heard your sword" Jack admitted. "Why are you up practicing when you should be resting?" Seth became serious and sheathed his sword in its long, silent scabbard.

"I" Seth began "am only prevailing to hold us back right now. My plan didn't work and it nearly got us killed, or worse, captured. You, Jack, are a legend. You can easily complete this quest with little more than your sword, but I am not so skillful or lucky. Right now, with my training, I can only hope that we don't encounter anything exceptionally dangerous!"

"You need not worry" Jack said. "It is only a warrior's mind that can guide a warrior. You must not believe in what you cannot do, but what you can." Jack's words failed to inspire Seth, but he smiled and nodded nonetheless. "Get some sleep, my friend. Tomorrow we must scale the mountain of iron to reach our goal."

"What!?" Seth exclaimed. "We barely survived the lighting up close! How are we going to climb and entire mountain of conductive metal!?"

* * *

In the morning his answers were revealed. After a breakfast courtesy of the amorous lady of the estate, Jack and Seth were taken to the glowing border of town in a speedy cruiser vehicle with two insulated rubber suits for scaling the metal mountain unharmed. They were thick astronautical suits with wide helmets and mirrored visors. They both seemed extremely bulky and loose, possibly several sized too large, and Jack and Seth openly expressed their skepticism for the gifts through their faces.

"Go on and put them on" the lady offered. "They can easily fit over your own clothing." Jack and Seth shared a nervous glance, then took up the kind offer and slipped into the suits with their swords unequipped on the ground. Two serving women sealed them in from behind and the head butler pressed a button on the center of the loose chest on each suit. After a moment of strange shaking the suits shrank and became skin-tight. Without losing any of their consistency or rubber properties the suits were shrunk around Jack and Seth's choice garb. Now Jack had equipped a stripped blue and white kimono and skin-tight fabric on his legs and feet. Seth's trench coat absorbed the suit and became semi-solid, staying afloat above the ground like a wide-fan tail and his hair was all caught in one sharp, long helmet-like spike that extended far down. They equipped their swords again and proceeded to the loudly humming energy barrier.

"Thank you very much for your assistance" Jack said with a deep bow. Seth bowed as well, and just before setting off he gave a short salute to the small crowd. The lady waved them away with a handkerchief and the staff waved them good bye.

"Now that that's done" the lady said "let us return to the manor."

"My lady" the head butler began, "what of the Samurai? When Aku finds out you let him escape the repercussions will be devastating!"

"That ancient windbag" the lady said "doesn't have a thing on me! I can erase the proof that that Samurai was ever in this city, let alone my manor!"

"He will find out eventually" a maid said. "My lady, what made you want do be so reckless? Aiding the Samurai instead of turning him in!?"

"I don't care about that fool" the lady growled. "He can die on the mountain if he wants! But that other one, with the silver hair...how could I resist letting him go? He was just so...gorgeous!"

"She always has been a sucker" the head butler said to a maid "for a pretty face."

"Lucky for the Samurai" she said back "he was traveling with him or he would be dead already..."

Outside the city, quickly raising in altitude, Jack and Seth scaled the nearest, tallest iron mountain to reach its peak and find their target: wherever the larges concentration of lightning would be. Surely there they would find their Gem. They climbed for what seemed like minutes, because they were together, but in reality the ascent had taken nearly an hour. Their efforts were doubled with each other, Jack helping to push Seth up steep cliffs and Seth pulling Jack up to places he couldn't safely reach. They kept their swords sheathed as the lightning could easily detect some new, attractive metal and blasted them to the ground miles below. Finally, after so long, they reached the summit of the nearest mountain and could see the clouds just barely above them.

"Over there!" Jack shouted, pointing across a long stretch of jagged, metallic ground. There was a certain mountain that stretched up above the clouds at its sharpest, highest point. From the tip of the cloud the storm clouds seemed to ripple outwards, as if it were a rock in the middle of a lake, but upon a more detailed and refined observation, and through the zoom built into their suits, Jack and Seth saw that the clouds in fact poured out of the peak of the mountain.

"That's it!" Seth exclaimed. "That must be it! There's no other place like that as far as I can see!"

"Then it is settled" Jack said. "That is our newest destination. We shall set out immediately."

"But how can we get there?" Seth asked. "From up here it seems to be more than a day's walk and climb to the summit. We don't have any food with us and I'll bet my left hand that we won't be finding any food out there."

"Agreed" Jack said. He put his hand to his chin and started to think, observing his surroundings carefully. There was nothing save for the humming blue glow that came from the ages of electrical charges and the jagged spikes of metal all around. Jack continued thinking hard of a way out, but no matter where he looked he only saw an impossible journey lying ahead.

"I think" Seth began "I have an idea."

"What is it?" Jack asked. Seth looked around for a moment with his hand steadily on the hilt of his sword. Jack was acting very cautiously. The lightning would surely strike at something with little charge as soon as it could. It was almost as if the clouds were intentionally waiting for an opportunity like this to become available. Seth prepared for a sudden strike at a particularly flat node of iron. Two pieces of tombstone-like iron were jutting from the cliff face and Seth was eying them down with a tenacious, risky plan in mind. However, he began to doubt himself and his skills to execute such a plan. His grip became tense and his hand shook with uncertainty.

"Not what you cannot do" Seth said "but what you can do. I must believe in those words..." Seth continued to hesitate as loud, crackling thunder rolled overhead. Blasts of lightning slammed the mountainside, shaking and surging the entire mountain with a tremendous wave of electricity. Jack staggered but stomped and regained his balance. Seth was adamant. The quake didn't phase him in the slightest, and for an instant his mellow green eyes burned bright with a dangerous, inner fire. Quicker than even lightning he slashed and sheathed his blade.

"Iai to!" Jack exclaimed. "To use such a style with such a long blade. Even I cannot do such a thing! But what was it for?" Seth straightened up and turned to Jack, the glow in his eyes dimming as he stared his friend down.

"We can use these" Seth began, pointing to the flat iron slabs "to surf down the mountain and across the plains."

"Are you certain?" Jack asked. Seth tossed him his plate, just long enough for him to stand on, and then Seth demonstrated his purpose. One side of each slab was glowing bright while the other crackled with noisy static. Seth set the slab down quietly on the ground beneath him, glowing side down, and stood on it. Jack noticed that he hadn't even placed it down, let alone quietly, but that he was simply floating above the ground.

"Magnetism" Seth said "has saturated all the iron in this mountain. That's why it's useless, in an electronic world, all the electricity would destroy any machines built from this iron! We can surf down the mountain and across the plains without losing any momentum thanks to the anti-gravity properties the sleds allow us."

"Amazing" Jack awed. He placed his slab, glowing side up, near the ground only to realize that it was now stuck. He tried to wrench it out to no avail and realized the fatal flaw of the electric magnetism, that he used the plus side on the minus side of the mountain, rather than plus to plus, and now his slab was magnetically stuck to the ground. "Um...Could you make some room on your sled, please?" Seth lightly slapped his helmet with his hand and stepped off his board.

Moments later, Jack and Seth sped down the mountain, meandering and steering erratically. Eventually they got the hang of the strong pulls and pushes from the electro-static ground and went on their way with confident smiles, right into the jagged plains where the lightning blasted with frightening frequency. Is it true that lightning never strikes the same place twice? No, not here, and Jack and Seth will find that out soon enough...


	9. Episode 9

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

IX. Jack and Seth Scale the Mountain

* * *

From mountain to mountain was a deadly stretch of open air. Short, iron spires and hooked-rock formations were everywhere. Jack collected all the knowledge he had ever retained form his use of futuristic devices to get around in the chaotic landscapes and cityscapes of this evil present. Seth got used to it much earlier and easier than Jack did and stayed close to him as they came off the slope of the mountain.

"Get ready!" Seth shouted. "This may jolt you a bit!"

"Understood!" Jack replied. They went from a steep fall to the level ground and kept all the speed they had gained to stay on despite the huge shock of nearly hitting two polar magnetic ends with each other. They still hovered over the ground but they weren't gaining speed. Seth tilted the forward end of his plank forward and started drifting slowly in front of Jack. Jack mimicked him and stayed at the same speed as his friend. Finally the planes came, although plain planes they weren't. Jack and Seth had to separate temporarily and steer their way through branching gauntlets.

Jack kept his eyes forward but stayed aware of Seth's position the whole time. He let his board ramp over the smaller bumps in the ground while gaining what speed he could from the fall down. On the taller, somewhat thinner obstacles Jack dodged to the right, hoping to get closer to Seth if her continued drifting in that direction. After several spikes of metal Jack took a wrong right and found himself faced with a tall wall, apparently some kind of small iron canyon carved from the eon-old mining. Jack's warrior reflexes kicked in and he managed to pull his board up and ramped up a straight wall. He knew that he would lose his speed and not be able to get it back if he fell back down, regardless if he stuck the landing or not.

"What can I do?" Jack asked. He looked down and saw that the canyon still had an opening he could use to go back where he was. He diced that was for the best and coordinated himself through the air to ramp back down the smooth metal wall. Once he did he blazed down, picking up speed, and then hit yet another wall that sent him up in the air and upside-down. Jack's face went blank for a moment, then after the calculations were all equated in his head he smiled with a serious face. He let himself flip the whole way around and dropped back down, a bolt of lightning racing him and blasting into the ground just above the splitting canyon.

Jack used the curving half-pipe of naturally magnetic iron earth to pick up speed as he went up and down, doing tricky maneuvers in mid-air. From above he saw that the half-pipe, which had drifted him far to the left, was soon ending, so he went back down and hugged the ground, curving across the iron while pressing down against the electrical field with his repelling board and flew across the quickly passing walls. A gap formed and Jack tucked his board in with his body until the wall returned. Then the magnetism he applied pushed him against the metal and sent him curving back down to flat ground. The canyon finally ended and Jack rose up into an ominously quiet flat stretch of iron ground.

"Jack!" Seth shouted. Jack looked to his right and saw nothing. He looked to his left and saw Seth, leaning hard to fly towards his friend. He stopped and ended up drifting within less than a meter of his ally. "Where'd you go?"

"I am not certain" Jack admitted. He looked ahead once more and raised his brow in surprise. "Look! The foot of the mountain! We are almost there!"

"Excellent!" Seth exclaimed. "Just that much closer to our ultimate goal!" A sudden blast of lightning hit just behind Seth and the air cracked loudly with the huge bang. "Jack?" Seth said. Jack turned to him with worry, hearing the clouds rumble erratically overhead. "Look around. What's the highest thing from the ground level right now?" Jack didn't bother to look. He knew what, or rather who, it was. Jack leaned into his board and crouched low. Seth followed him and they went blazing on as the lightning chased close behind them. Random blasts hit ahead and far off to the sides of them as they went rocketing across the planes.

"Perhaps the Gem will work" Jack said.

"Good idea!" Seth agreed. "Where is it?" Jack pointed to the center of his chest where the insulation suit covered his billowy kimono. Seth shook his head at the suggestion. "There's too much electric radiation. Exposing your skin, even a little bit, could get you jolted with a lethal blast of electro-magnetic energy!"

"This is not good" Jack said to himself as the lightning drowned out his voice. "We may not reach the mountain foot in time! I must think of some kind of contingency plan in case we are left to walk..." Jack checked to see if Seth was still as static in his behavior as before but found him surrounded with an aura of battle. His legs were parted widely and his hands were both situated on his blade.

"Jack!" Seth shouted. "Get a good distance from me!"

"Are you mad!?" Jack shouted. "If you draw your weapon in such a place-"

"Yeah" Seth said with a nod. "Just leave all that to me, alright?" Jack was blown to the right by a lightning bolt which hit between them. Seth took his blade in a tight grip and started drawing it out. Leaping streams of pure electric energy came snaking up from the very ground, drawn to Seth's sword. His suit prevented the lightning from coursing through him and it all stopped to retreat in a solid blue aura at his golden hand-guard. Jack looked down at his own blade and followed in Seth's example. Upon seeing Jack react that way Seth nodded, his signal, to initiate the plan.

They drew out their swords, the lightning stopping just long enough for the metal to sing as it exited the scabbard, and held them pointed behind them with straight arms. Jack and Seth both leaned forward as the loud hum of energy rang out from their swords and the lightning charged their weapons with the heat of a star's center. The imbalance of energy caused a dramatic shift in the gravitational magnetism and propelled them both nearly off their boards toward the mountain.

* * *

After only so long the effects had worn off and their weapons were negatively charged with the immense energy of nature's cruelest power. The giant mountain they now scaled had patches of odd obsidian rock jutting out from within the iron tower, places that seemed to be surrounded by overcharged iron that was charred black from the infinite electrical charge. The peak of the mountain where the clouds all seemed to manifest and pour form was in sight at last, but the pains of their trials were catching up with them.

"I'm getting hungry" Seth said with dread.

"Concentrate on the road ahead" Jack said, "not the pit in your belly."

"I lose my focus" Seth explained "when I get hungry, Jack. There's a good chance that I'll fall if this hunger keeps distracting me!"

"I have an idea" Jack said. He inched his way over to his friend and moved in close. He kept his foot-hold as fir mas he could and quickly worked to tie together the cords holding their scabbards to their waists. "Now our fate is tied together. I shall climb with strength for both of us. All you must do is keep yourself from giving in to the hunger."

"That's awfully bold of you, Jack" Seth said. "Aren't you scared for your own life?"

"In my mission" Jack said "my life may come and go, but should I ultimately fail then Aku's evil will go on for eternity! If I must die with him then so be it, but I refuse to leave the world until I have destroyed Aku in the present and the past!" His bold, brave words gave Seth the strength to silence his stomach and climb up next to the ambitious, swift-handed Jack. They scaled the steep face all the way up to the top and found the source of the deep-black clouds. They seemed to pour out of a cave just above the line of deadly clouds. Jack and Seth took a short glance at each other and nodded. They knew what course of action to take immediately.

They drew out their swords and held the tips into the swirling blackness. The molecules of water from the super-thick clouds were so charged that the clouds stopped moving out form the mountain and started congregating and forming around the blades of each super-statically charged sword. With just one hand each they continued their ascent, the clouds moving into their swords and away form them like a thick fog being cut by the red-hot scald of an iron.

"Be prepared" Jack warned. "We know not what demon lies above to test us. Our swords are already harnessed with its own element, giving us an automatic disadvantage."

"You're right" Seth said. "We should get rid of our charges before we face the demon."

"But how?" Jack asked.

"Just follow my lead" Seth said. Finally, after a minute of scaling the waterfall of clouds the found a large, flat surface and raised themselves up. The mouth of the cave the clouds poured out of was immense. It stretched high up and was so wide a caravan of soldiers could easily pass through in groups of twenty with plenty of room between each other. A ledge of rocks along the side of the cave was the only place where the clouds didn't cover. Jack and Seth used the tips of their swords to see the ground they walked on before stepping and made their way carefully to the elevated ledge. Seth's stomach roared with hunger. Jack's growled in a more timid reply.

"That's it for me, Jack" Seth said, falling to his knees. "I...I can't make it."

"Don't be ridiculous" Jack said. "Our goal is too close to give up! Just brace yourself and-" Jack's stomach cut him off and drained the profoundness of his words as he too hit the ground and clutched at his gut. "Perhaps we should have had a bigger breakfast."

"It's been too long" Seth said "since either of us ate. We'll just need to go back down and head back into town, gather supplies for the next expedition." Jack was extremely disappointed but in his mind he wasn't hesitant to admit that their current quest was an ill-planned one. With a sigh Jack stood up and sheathed his sword.

"Very well" Jack said. "Let us depart at once."

"Wait!" Seth said. He amazingly stood up and sheathed his sword, sniffing the air inside his helmet rapidly. He felt the urge to take his facemask off but fought it and sniffed as hard as he could through the filtering system. "I smell something inside the cave!"

"You do?" Jack asked. Jack sniffed the air and was gently touched with the lingering aroma of cooked Pheasant, a smell he knew well. Jack turned to the gaping darkness of the cave, a yawning void that led apparently nowhere, and felt a strange presence. "Could the demon...be eating?"

"Ifrit didn't eat" Seth recalled. "He was dormant for centuries as a rock."

"Perhaps this demon" Jack hopefully said "does not possess that ability and remains waking from eons past!"

"That must be it!" Seth said happily. "We can get its food before we fight it! We have the fire Gem already, so we have an advantage from before!"

"But our swords!" Jack said. Seth remembered what his hunger made him forget and turned to the open sky above the clouds. He nodded for Jack to stand beside him and placed his hand on the grip of his sword.

"We can release the lightning" Seth explained "back into the black clouds with a proper swing."

"So we can simply swing the lightning away?" Jack asked. "Just what is your theory based on?"

"Desperation" Seth answered. Jack wanted to say something but noticed Seth was already concentrating on his swing. With a quick swipe of his sword the electric charge was depleted and a blue flash blinded both men. The sudden violent rumble of thunder sounded out in the nearby, flowing clouds as they rolled down into the stretching, torrential sea. Jack stepped forward, took his sword in its familiar grip and closed his eyes. He swung, blocked the bright flash with his closed eyes and waited. The rumbling stopped audibly but now the mountain began to shake. The energy released by both swords at once was too great for the clouds to bare and the sea of black began to rupture. Huge fissures of glowing light-blue cracked open in the clouds.

"I think we made an error" Jack said.

"Yes" Seth flatly agreed. "An electrical overload, apparently. Seems our swords are much more absorbent of energy than we knew." A sudden flash of absolute white and then the impossibly loud cracking of lightning. The suits automatically shut out the ears of both men so the sound didn't break open their ear drums. Jack and Seth only saw through their tinted visors huge twitching spires of flashing lightning. They went down the blast the surface and up to scrape the deep-blue sky, swords from heaven to bring a new age of hell.

* * *

Jack and Seth proceeded inside the cave, ignoring their hunger as best they could as the smell increased their stomach's anxiousness. They rounded several bends, watching the inky-black clouds roll down below. They hopped across several rocks where the clouds flowed with a particularly rapid strength. The further into the cave they went the less electrical charge there happened to be. Instead of a steady blue glow short bursts of electricity jumped through the wall like an exposed circuitry. The walls became blacker and blacker the deeper into the dark cave they went.

Eventually they saw an oddly orange light through their visors. A beeping warning came through the systems of their suits with an odd symbol that Jack couldn't recognize.

"Coast is clear" Seth said, removing his suit mask. "The radiation is behind us and at a non-threatening level. We're alright to remove our suits now."

"Good" Jack said. He carefully took off his suit and stowed it inside his kimono, then he touched the Gem and found it to be strangely hot. He took it out and looked at it as it pulsed with the radiant magical fire within. Then he felt his skin sizzle and tossed it from hand to hand. "A demon must be very nearby!"

"Pass!" Seth said. He caught the Gem in his leather glove and looked at it. He peered through the misty fire inside and looked down the final stretch of cave that was left where the blackest smoke and orange glow came from. Seth started walking, still looking through the Gem for some sign of reaction to the demonic proximity, his fingers getting warmer and sweatier the closer he got. Jack stayed close behind, ready at any moment to jump forward and defend his ally in case the demon was hostile.

"Stop" Jack said. Seth stopped and lowered the Gem, switching hands as the heat was finally catching up to him.

"What is it?" Seth asked.

"Shh" Jack hushed. "I hear music..." Seth listened in and soon his ears caught the brief sounds of a mellow, jovial tune with accompanying instruments just around the corner where the orange glow came from.

"What could it be?" Seth asked.

"Our demon is waiting" Jack said. "Let us meet him." Seth watched Jack leave and put the Gem away, although with a suspicious feeling in the pocket he stowed it in. Jack and Seth peeked around the corner to catch the breadth of the whole scene.

A circle of green-feathered bird-men were dancing around one monstrous figure cloaked in incredibly long, flimsy lime-green feathers. The smaller dancing, singing and drum-pounding demons had short beaks with red stripes across the top and a head of smooth, soft feathers. In the corner there was a group of lightly larger bird men with capes of feathers dropping from their arms who had longer beaks which bulged at the tip and had from three to five broad red stripes. Jack looked up at the figure they all played for, the obvious leading demon, at least thirty feet high, as he sat in a throne made of naturally pushed and formed obsidian rocks. Giant slabs of board meat were being cooked over a raging fire built on the hot iron coals from the iron mountains.

Not just one but a whole slew of bird-like demons who walked upright and clapped and dance and sang white the long, withered finger of their apparent idol wagged and tapped to the beat they played, or perhaps he provided that beat for them to play. Jack and Seth guessed on differing opinions but didn't bother to voice them. Their stomachs' opinions were much louder than their thoughts. Suddenly the dancing stopped and Seth fell over. Jack clutched his gut and leaned against the wall, staying on his feet just in case.

"O-hooooo!?" a high-pitched, very elderly voice called out. The gigantic rainbow-patterned beak of the ruling diety among the demons raise up with its wrinkled old face and looked down through its drooping feather-lashes at the wide entrance to its den. "Travelers have made it all the way here!? How joyous!!!" Jack felt something other than hunger in the pit of his gut: worry. Was this happiness real sincerity or a guise for something much more siniser?


	10. Episode 10

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

X. Jack and the Lightning Demon

* * *

Jack and Seth were eating heartily of the deliciously lightning-roasted meat while the demon's danced around the throne of their king. A giant of a demon with a whole dress of long, aged feathers sat before the, a bald head and sagging eyes that still had a glow of ageless cheer within them. Their fear was dissipated as Jack and Seth found themselves in the first completely friendly environment they could remember.

"O-HOOOOO!!!!!" the jovial old deity hooted with joy. "So you are Samurai Jack! What a wonderful coincidence, yes, wonderful, yes, what, yes..." His senile trailing only made his otherwise terrifying image more passive and to Jack fatherly. He had seen plenty of elders in his youth with the wisdom of countless ages held with very little respect because of their thoughtless nature. The following this particular demon had amassed gave Jack the comfort of his culture that such an ancient being was respected by so many creatures.

Seth, on the other hand, had his mind set squarely on the mission. He scanned the cave all around, mentally photographing each of the cracks and lines high above in search of some feint sign of the Gem which he had endured intense, almost deadly hunger and which he dodged lightning to find. He ate with a rather uneasy disposition and the waves of his discomfort somehow reached the mighty Demon before him.

"You seek something here, yes?" the giant asked. Seth looked up in shock, but before he could neatly set his meat down Jack threw down a bare bone and stood up.

"We are on a quest" he said, wiping his mouth with a spare cloth form within his robe "to seek out a collection of magical Gems in hoping of uniting their power to defeat Aku."

"Aku?" the demon repeated with a hint of stern curiosity. "Who is that?"

"You do not know!?" Jack said in utter disbelief.

"Aku" Seth began, jumping to his feet "is the most inexcusably evil being in all the universe! He is the tyrannical overlord of the entire cosmos, the entirety of worldly power at his beck and call! He is pure, living, smoke-spouting evil!"

"Ooooooh my!" the demon hooted. "I would be glad to assist you...but I cannot simply hand over my riches to you." From its long, withered finger it drew out a brightly glowing orb. Jack and Seth took intent notice at it and watched the ancient arm covered in long feathers lower it down past the arms of the throne. The Gem they sought crackled with the elemental lightning, glowing bright-green within its swirling center. "This was entrusted to me by far greater forces...yes, greater forces, yes."

"We have already proved ourselves to be righteous" Jack said "in the face of one of the other guardians." Jack took out the flickering fire Gem, hot to the touch, and clutched it hard, kicking up flames that licked at hi skin then flared away into vapor, simply heating his furious hand. "What must we prove to you?"

"Oooooo!" the demon hooted in excitement, drawing it shand back up. "You defeated Ifrit! I'm impressed! Yes! Very! Very impressed! He was always such a hot-head..." A silence flowed through the cave, the demon seeming to cut out in the middle of his speech. It was as if he had died in mid-sentence, and Jack cringed at the thought of prying the Gem out of such huge fingers. "**HEEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEE!!!!**" the demon suddenly cackled in a piercing falsetto. "I made a hilarious joke!"

"Actually" Seth began, holding his hears, "it wasn't all that great."

"I am **Ramuh Dajeen** the Demon of Lightning" Ramuh said in a proper old voice. "I was asked by much greater forces, yes, to guard his sacred object not to keep it out of the hands of evil but to properly place it into the hands of the wise."

"That would be us" Seth said.

"No no!" Ramuh said, shaking his fingers in a conducting style. "You have certainly proven that you are strong. Yes, VERY strong indeed, but wise? I must have you prove your wisdom to me, for while fire is a gift for all humans to control, lightning is not something that can be taken lightly..." Another pause, and Jack and Seth braced their ears for the next onslaught of high-pitched laughter. "No" Ramuh growled, sinking back into his darkness with glowing eyes, "that joke wasn't funny..."

"I agree" Seth said.

"You must show me" Ramuh continued as if uninterrupted "that you posses inhuman wisdom, and can take care of this power beyond the abilities of any living thing. Lightning cannot be contained, you know, nor can it be controlled."

"Should I tell him" Seth whispered aside to Jack "about 'electronics'?"

"In order to wield lightning" Ramuh said "prove to me your intellect! I will only allow those with wit faster than this power to wield the power itself!"

"However can we appease such a request?" Jack asked.

"Tell me a joke!" Ramuh demanded. Jack and Seth looked worriedly at each other.

* * *

After a while the rules were reset. Telling jokes seemed to arbitrary of a task for saviors of the world to do to prove their worth intellectually to a mighty thunder spirit. Instead, Ramuh began crafting brilliant brain-teasing riddles for the heroes to answer. Jack stood on the firm ground, surrounded by crouching bird-men who watched him with their hawk-like eyes and constantly probed at his stance for a sign of weakness. His hands were folded inside his sleeves and his head was hung in deep thought. Seth had his arms crossed and held his head high, prepared with a wit as sharp as his sword and a cataloged intellect more dazzling than his long sliver hair.

"Got it!" Ramuh exclaimed. He sat up straight, increasing his height all the more and looked down his long beak at the two challenging young men. His finger-tips all met with deep clacks and he squinted his wrinkled old eyes, narrowing two beams of light onto the men who stood prepared. "How many months have 28 days?"

"Isn't that a trick?" Seth asked.

"All of them" Jack answered. "Going by the Gregorian calender, of course, a modernization of the lunar-phase calender which divides the year up into 365 and a quarter days, leaving one day each year in February to be a 'Leap Day' one which is passed over the other fours years to prevent a mass accumulation of inaccurate time." Jack stood up with a smile on his face and drew his hands back together. Seth was in total awe and Ramuh was shocked, so much so that his huge, heavy beak was straight up and his old gray tongue hung out of his lower jaw.

"CORRECT!" he screeched. Jack bowed and received thunderous applause. "You are indeed quite smart! Of course, now that I know that, I will only make it harder on you!" Ramuh squinted now only on Seth, leaving Jack in the darkness. "Now it falls upon you, yes, to answer this riddle."

"Wish me luck Jack" Seth said.

"You do not need it" Jack said. "I have confidence in you, my friend."

"That's good" Seth said. He started breathing slightly heavier until he was right into panting. "Right now I'm a bit too scared to think straight..."

"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt" Ramuh began, "cannot be heard cannot be smelt. It lies behind the stars and beneath the hills. It ends life and kills laughter. What is it?"

"...**the dark...**" Seth answered flatly. Ramuh's eyes both opened and he laughed quietly.

"Correct" he said with grinning eyes. "Yes, very correct. Wearing all black, I see, I knew that riddle would be no trouble for you, bearing the colors of a funeral march! HEEHEEHEEEEEE!!!"

"I wear black by choice" Seth said. "There's no fashion behind it."

"Continue to test us" Jack challenged. "Rest assured that you will only serve to disappoint yourself when you run out of riddles for us."

"Ooooh" Ramuh hummed, "I may just corner you yet. After all, I have existed long before your terrible 'Aku' and I have lived all those eternities in peace with my immortal children of living fire. I have amassed considerable knowledge on brain-teasing riddles and rib-tickling jokes! For example, have you heard the one about the bear?"

"Please" Jack said, "we are in a hurry. We must receive the next riddle now."

"Very well" Ramuh said. Two beacons of light were cast down. "There is an old man living in a house near a well. One day he goes to his well and brings up the bucket to drink but finds only sand in it. The well is dry, and he lives far too far away from a river and is far too old to walk to his neighbors. The sun is as hot as it ever was in the land where he lived so he went in his house and was found in the following days as a dried corpse, dead of dehydration. Where lives the man?"

Surprise and fear came through Jack and Seth. Neither of them had ever heard the riddle and neither had the quick-draw wit to answer it on the spot. Jack thought as hard as he could piecing everything together, and thought he had an answer, replying to the challenge with a slightly curious tone.

"The desert?" he said.

"Good" Ramuh said, no longer jovial but judgmental. He closed the eye of Jack and focused on Seth. It was up to him again. "In a village there are two families who are in bitter feud. One family fights with swords while the other fights with clubs. Who is the richest man in that town?" Seth was utterly stunned and shocked. Half of the information was totally irrelevant to the question. There was little to piece together from what he was given, but Seth gave it his best try and answered as confidently as he could.

"The blacksmith!" he shouted. Ramuh stayed silent for a while and closed his eye. The room was totally dark. Upon opening his eyes once more Seth found himself surrounded by hostile, growling bird-men with extended claws and lashing tongues.

"Wrong" Ramuh said. "Sorry, yes...sorry!" His last word was a gleeful chime, signaling his followers to attack Seth in full, simultaneous force!

"What are you doing!?" Jack shouted.

"It is your turn now" Ramuh hooted. "Time to answer!!!"

"Jack!" Seth shouted. "Help!" The creatures rushed in on him, ready to rip him apart with indifferent power, but they were all quickly blown back and into crackling heaps of semi-solid electricity. Seth held his long sword tightly in his left hand and drew it up with his right shoulder, gripping the butt end with his right hand and sliding his legs apart so he stared straight down the curved blade at his downed enemies. The creatures didn't stay down long, however, for as quickly as they were dispatched they were revived with the fierce blasting of static. "Get the answer right or we may not leave here alive!"

"Can you defend yourself?" Jack asked. The light from Ramuh's eyes, bright yellow and blinding, brightened to the point where Jack could only raise his hands and hope to dampen it.

"It is my question" Ramuh said "that you must answer."

* * *

"What is the meaning of this!?" Jack demanded, ignoring the deity's threatening glare. "You have declared yourself that we need not prove our worth in strength. Why have you forced this attack?"

"Those are the rules" Ramuh said. "Take them or leave them, and unfortunately I doubt you can easily leave without this." He flashed the Gen to Jack and captured his attention once more. "Answer my riddle and he will be freed of this attack. Otherwise, you will both have to fend off my immortal children! Hoo-HOOOOOOO!!!!" Seth was enraged by the mad cackled and prepared to make an embarrassing spectacle of the enthusiastic blood-lusting warriors. They screeched and charged right into his range.

Seth attacked with powerful swipes, swinging his sword in powerfully long arcs. His right arm controlled the power and his left hand kept the blade steadily on its straight course of motion, cutting the feathered chests of the undying warriors open. He stabbed and drew his sword back to make a huge slash downward. With each swipe of his sword static licked the blade and charged it up with energy. Seth swung in an arc over his head and threw a bolt of lightning up to the roof of the cave, shaking the rocks loose and forcing them to tumble down. He jumped away, near the huge throne, as a short avalanche of rocks tumbled down and crushed the bird-men.

He brought his sword up with a pump of his arm and made a swipe in front for flair. The birds simply oozed through the rocks as a slithering electric goo. They reassembled, two coming together at once, and formed bigger, much more muscular bird-men with a humanoid bottom jaw that had speckles of stubbed hair. The bird-men growled with their strange, high-pitched voices and rushed him once again.

"Damn" Seth uttered. He took up his sword and began hopping away, provoking the warriors with his stylish spins and graceful gallantry. One finally jumped up reaching for Seth and was swiftly disarmed. Literally. Two swift, successive swipes and the monster's arms were off, leaving the crackling stubs of shoulders to bleed away electricity. The monster continued onward toward Seth, though it was incapacitated, allowing Seth to step on its back and use it as a spring board to jump away at Ramuh's throne. He made a grab but a disgusting sense of danger overcame him. He kicked away just as a huge serge of purple and white lightning ripped through the ground and cracked the stone of the floor all around the throne spire.

"What the hell!?" Seth shouted.

"Now now" Ramuh said, patronizing the already enraged Seth, "you lost my game and must deal with the consequences until your smart friend can bail you out. I am certain that he can answer the riddle which you could not, even though it was so very simple and somewhat childish. So Jack, let us here the answer now, yes!"

"I..." Jack hesitantly began. He had his finger to his lower lip. Even though the danger of not answering the riddle properly hung over his head the danger his friend was in was more significant to him. He probed his mind, searching for the oasis of knowledge in the desert of his unknowing, but- "The desert!" he suddenly answered. "He lives in the desert! That is why there was sand in his well!"

"That was barely a riddle" Seth complained. The monsters moved away from him defensively, though he still had his sword wielded offensively. Seth made his way back to Jack ,staying clear of the still crackling ground around the throne, and glared up at Ramuh. "Say, old demon, how are you so sure that you aren't the hot-head among the demons? You seem pretty quick to dispense us if we get one of your ridiculous riddles wrong!"

"I must agree with my friend" Jack said. "You do not practice what you preach."

"What good is a game of consequence" Ramuh asked "without the consequences, yes? In order for me to properly motivate you, I need to make sure the punishment for an intellectual failure is too great for you to face alone. For each answer you cannot get right my children will throw their powerful selves at you in the hopes of ending your quest and achieving a higher state of being! They reach to the dark clouds for enlightenment, the ultimate education, yes! Ultimate! Hoo-HOOOO!!!!"

"Jack" Seth whispered, "I think he's insane."

"Age brings many benefits" Jack said uncertainly "but only those that can be reached with a cane. He may not be fully within his right mind."

"Then let's tell him!" Seth exclaimed. "If he realizes that he isn't mentally stable enough to judge us...maybe he'll break down."

"Hoo-hoo-HOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Ramuh cackled. He kept laughing in his senile way with his long, feather-robed arms extended out to the sides of his throne, drunk on knowledge. His minions began dancing around him tribally, stomping their feet and leaping through the air, all to the tune of unseen energetic drums.

"I do not think" Jack began "that he can break down any further than this..." Now Jack and Seth must test not their mettle but their minds against this unwaveringly witty foe, a battle of intellect and quick-wit! At the end of this labyrinth of knowledge lies the legendary power of pure lightning!


	11. Episode 11

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XI. Ramuh's Riddles

* * *

The sharp young minds of Jack and Seth had triumphed for a time, but the wise old demon was busy stroking his beard of feathers, plotting more impossible riddles for the hapless duo to wriggle their way out of. Suddenly, inspiration hit him and Ramuh cast his spotlight gaze onto the two once more, a signal that a riddle was upon them.

"A woman" Ramuh began "has seven children and half of them are boys. How can this be?"

"They are all boys" Seth answered, quick as a whip.

"HOOO!!!!" Ramuh cawed. "You are too sharp, I see. I will have to come up with something much harder for your friend..."

"You'll do fine, Jack" Seth said.

"Thank you" Jack said. Ramuh probed his mind as deep as he could for some sort trivial trivia for the young yet anciently versed samurai.

"They say" Ramuh began "you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. What would you find for looking in the mouth of any other horse?" Jack thought for a moment, remembering the absurdity that most riddles took and gave his answer with a hint of uncertainty.

"Teeth?" Jack said.

"GOOOD!!!!" Ramuh cawed. Jack breathed a sigh of relief and received a thumb up from Seth. "Very good. You know your animals, yes, you know them! HOOO!!! Let us see, yes, what else can be asked but not answered?"

"A paradox?" Seth answered, shooting his arm up anxiously.

"We weren't playing" Jack said. Seth lowered his arm shamefully and hung his head down.

"YEEEEEESSSSS!!!!" Ramuh cawed, forcing Jack and Seth to clamp their hands to their ears. "Let us ask some paradoxes!"

"I must refuse" Jack said. "It goes against the competition that you have held us to."

"If we can't answer a riddle" Seth said "then of course we are open to punishment, but a paradox is something entirely different. They are designed to _not_ be answered, but to meditate upon."

"Such as" Jack began "the sound of one hand clapping."

"There is no sound there" Ramuh said. "Such as there is sound when a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it. Scientifically there is sound, but logically there is not as no one can acknowledge that the sound exists, or that the tree in fact fell. A hymnal of oddity and the absurdity of thought...yes, paradoxes may not be so easy to answer. Back to the riddles!"

"This creature is mad" Seth said. "How much longer must we prove ourselves?"

"Now that" Jack said back "sounds like a riddle worth knowing the answer to." The light blasted back on, spotting the two as they stood near each other on the crackled floor. Ramuh was ready. Then, the light of one eye dimmed and Seth was surrounded with the light, leaving Jack surrounded by darkness.

"How can you throw a ball" Ramuh began "so that it may return to you without bouncing, without anything attached to it, and with no one else around to throw it back?"

"Easy" Seth said. "You throw it straight up and catch it as it comes back down."

"OOOOOOOOO!!!!" Ramuh hooted. "That wasn't tricky enough at all! Alright Jack, your turn, yes, yours!" The single red light went down on Jack. Seth felt no nervousness at all. He believed completely in his ally. "Two girls were born of the same mother on the same day, the same year, the same month and at the very same time but they are not twins."

"They are two of triplets" Jack immediately answered. Ramuh hit his fists off his throne armrests and cheered with high-pitched bird-like laughter.

"**HOOOO-HOOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOOOOO!!!!!**" The cave shook and Jack could feel his eardrums stretching to their maximum limit. Soon he would be deaf, he knew, if that incessant laughter was permitted to go on. "You two are so very smart! Yes! YES! But now I think I have got you! A riddle to end them all, yes, one too hard for either of you!"

"We are ready" Seth said. The light came brightly across the whole cave and two identical birdmen stood arms-length apart in front of Jack and Seth. Seth braced himself, but somehow the situation rang in familiarity for Jack.

"One of us" one bird-man said "tells only truth. The other tells only lies." Jack slapped his forehead.

"Excuse me" Jack said, raising his hand with a tired voice. "I have answered this riddle elsewhere already. May we please move onto another one?" Ramuh looked down at him and blinked.

"Eh?" Ramuh grunted, pretending not to hear him.

"At least tell us" Jack said "that we are nearly done here."

"Oh" Ramuh grunted, "you are in such a hurry that you can't humor an old, old demon, yes? I understand. You should have said so earlier. I will give you my hardest riddle and if answered you may leave."

"Finally!" Seth shouted. "Thank you! We _are_ in a dire hurry, I think we told you that already."

"Yes, yes" Ramuh said. "I may have forgotten that. Alright, are you both ready?"

"Certainly" Jack agreed. The beams of light came down on them again and the bird-men moved in, stopping just at the glowing border of light. Jack and Seth became anxious. They were ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Jack looked around and kept his hand ready to snap his sword out of its sheathe. Seth did the same, though less discretely, placing both hands down on his blade, ready to draw.

* * *

"In a village" Ramuh began "a barber shaves only those who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?" The riddle seemed simple in its length, but the recent lessons learned by the duo stayed with them like tempered steel added to the armor of their mental frames. The wording was analyzed by both Jack and Seth as they tried to find a way to answer this apparently cryptic puzzle. The unsettling presence of the bird-men all around them forced their minds to work with a constricted feeling and their logic panicked to untangle itself from the already chaotic circumstances they were in.

"I've got it!" Seth announced.

"Are you certain?" Jack asked. "There can be no helping a wrong answer you know."

"Believe me" Seth said. "I saw past the confusion. The only one who can shave the barber does not live in the village! A traveler from far away, or from nearby, one from out of the village is one who shaves the barber!" Ramuh remained silent for far too long for comfort, leaving Seth in an awkward victorious pose in the stagnant silence. "Jack, toss me the fire Gem please." Jack threw the Gem over the heads of the bird-men just as the light erupted into the room and the army began moving in to mob the retreating Seth. He gripped the Gem tightly and let roar a stream of pulsing fire. The bird-men were promptly roasted and left as electrically crackling piles of ash which quickly reformed into fire-resistant black-birds.

"It falls upon you now, yes" Ramuh said, focusing on Jack, trapping him in a beam of light so strong he could not move from it. "Take as much time as you please, but oh do hurry, for your friend's life may not last forever!" Jack knew the only thing to do was think long and hard about his answer, so he sat down and meditated despite the squabbling squawking and cacophonous battle-shouting that pursued Seth.

"I can last, Jack" Seth called. "You can do it! This kind of riddle is just your taste!" Seth found himself cornered and pushed against a jagged wall. His sword came out, glowing with energy, and he held it tight in his left hand. The Gem was in his right, glowing and surrounding his arm with lofty flares. The bird-men formed a wide breadth around him, not wanting to rush in unorganized, and made advances with glaring claws two at a time. Seth came out into the center of the circle, forcing the entire group to move, and fought his enemies off. One charged in from behind which Seth pushed away with a kick. One came from the front which he dispatched with a swift slice of his blade.

Seth turn on his heel as he brought it back down and slashed the bird he had kicked. Both dissolved into static ash and sped away into the crowd to reassemble while three more came rushing in. Seth's arm gripped high on his blade and swung hard at two advancing birds, only to have them stop just outside his range. The electricity leaped from his blade to their beak-mask faces. The one who got close, in under Seth's vision, made swipes at his torso with its claws. He jumped away until he was at the border the bird-men allowed him, then jumped straight over his enemy and spun around in the air to come down facing his enemy's back and cleaved it open. The other two came in jumping, a foolish move, as Seth punched his fire-wrapped arm and let a roaring bullet of flame consume them both.

Now four came charging in and tried to overtake Seth's blade by making grabs at it when it reached the slowest points of its wide arc swings. Seth brought his sword arm to his face and placed his chin directly behind his bicep, flexing so the sword formed the top line of a three-sided frame. He stopped in place, waited for the birds to come in, then slashed and spun off his feet using his sword's force of motion to slash and slash and slash again. Seven straight, clean, perfect cuts were carved into the frames of the bird-men, each one falling apart based on those seven deep gashes. Then the border began charging in with a wonton lust for destruction. They didn't care to move strategically, they were out purely for Seth's blood and his blade.

Seth aimed his arm down and let a blast of fire propel him into the air. His shoulder was nearly jarred out of its socket, pain he anticipated and endured as he floated down to the wide open ground near the still black and broken ground around the throne. He stabbed into one bird-man and picked him up with the tip of his blade to throw him away into the throne on a whim. The ground shivered and the bird-man was converted into pure electricity, then returned to Ramuh who continued staring at the meditating Jack.

"That's it!" Seth shouted. He was instantly attacked by a group of rabidly slashing, gurgling bird-men whom he jumped over and ran on top of, kicking them into the black ground and converting them into electricity. "This isn't a fight of force, it's one of resource! They are all eager and able to return to their master when close enough as pure energy!" Seth used this information well and stabilized himself to propel away and land facing the mob as they stood between him and the black field. He glared them down with combative eyes and stabbed his sword into the ground, clutching the Gem with both hands at his side so the flames would kick and flare in all directions like never before. His boot-soles set against the hard ground and his legs braced themselves for the immense kick he was about to deliver to his body.

"**FIRAGA!!!"** Seth roared. A spiraling wave of fire erupted from his hands and blasted the bird-men away. They bird-men at the rear of the group looked at each other with worry, then embraced in a parting hug as the destructive tsunami of fire swept them all into the conductive throne spire. The flames blasted against the rock, heating it up and shaking the entire interior of the cave. Spikes fell from up high, surrounding the peaceful Jack who still sat in deepest thought and jarring the mighty Ramuh as the rocks broke against his sturdy beak.

"Hooo?" Ramuh hooted curiously. "What was that?"

* * *

"Wait a moment" Jack said, suddenly standing up from his meditation. "I can't believe I overlooked this! It was in front of me the whole time!"

"What?" Ramuh asked, leaning in for the answer.

"There _is_ no answer!" Jack exclaimed. He remembered a time, long ago, when he stayed in a cold region and honed his skills in survivability. The harshest climbs and pathways of that ancient day were traversed by he, a long an nameless son of a legend and a wizened old behemoth of a man, standing over seven feet tall an a beard that stretched to his thick fur boots. His grizzled glare could frighten the winds to stop their churning but he refused to scare the storm out of its valuable harshness. Jack trained hard during those treacherous times when Aku was awakened from his age-long slumber, and he learned many things.

He and his mentor stopped for the night in the den of a bear they had both wrestled and skinned for protection against the cold. Jack took the newly made fur blanket and wrapped himself well within it, still seeing his own breath in the deep belly of the dark cave. He sat across a small fire where parts of the kill still roasted from his huge mentor who glowered through the shadows with a militant mind.

"Let me tell you" the man said in a statistically dark voice "one of the most perplexing riddles in the world."

"Why would you tell me such a thing now?" Jack asked.

"Your mind" he demanded "must be sharp as the blade you seek to one day take up, young warrior, no matter what the situation is! You think I got us here on brute strength alone? NO! I used my mind! You must use your mind as well to work out of difficult situations or there will be no chance that you will take down the Aku!"

"I'm sorry, _sensei_" Jack apologized. "Please, what is the riddle?"

"In a village" he began, stroking his long, long beard, "there is a barber who shaves only those who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?"

"Does the barber not shave himself?" Jack asked.

"Of course not" his mentor said. "That would break his golden rule! Think harder, young one." Jack thought hard as he could and fought off many an illogical answer. Finally, as the fire began dying and the creeping cold drained Jack's body of its last warmth for the waking day his mentor gave out a warming chuckle. "You give up, eh? I will tell you. The answer...**there is no answer! HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!**"

"What!?" Jack exclaimed.

"It is not a normal riddle" the man said. "It is a paradox. There is no way out of it at all! He can't shave himself, and no one can shave him for he is the only one who may shave those who do not shave themselves."

"What about those" Jack began "who _do_ shave themselves?"

"They would never bother" his mentor bellowed back "visiting a barber they didn't need! Think lad! Not every question has an answer! The sound of one hand clapping, you've heard that? This is a less orthodox meditation riddle. Now get sleep. We are hiking to the summit tomorrow and sunrise is in only a few hours." Jack went to sleep readily, not because he was at peace and calm but because he was physically exhausted. Now, however, he was wide awake and faced down the demon with a confident scorn.

"You" Jack said to Ramuh "have broken your bond of trust! You promised not to use a paradox on us as they have no proper answer, yet you have asked us to answer such a question out of the frustration that we have beaten back all of your other riddles. You have decieved us!"

"How dare you!" Seth said, sprinting back to his position with only a few regenerated bird-men chasing him. He stood firmly beside Jack with his arms crossed and panted. "To think, we trusted a wise old demon. I guess, in the end...AGH!" Seth's wisdom was interuppted by his pursuers, but Jack was glad to glare Ramuh down and finish the quip.

"In the end, a demon's word can only be held at face value. There is nothing more shallow than a demon's promise." Jack's words bit at Ramuh's old heart, and he knew what had to be done. He passed the Gem down to Jack as a peace offering and called away his birds to stop chasing Seth.

"I apologize" Ramuh said. "Yes...It has been an eternity since I was last met with such intellect. I wanted to test it as far as I could. Ahhh, I'm glad you played along for as long as you did. Truth be told, I was ready to give you the Gem when first I realized how zealous you were about destroying this evil Aku fellow. Demons like him give us guardian spirits a bad name, yes..."

"Apology accepted" Jack said.

"Same here" Seth said. "Truth be told, you were much more trusting than the last demon."

"Yes" Ramuh said. His eyes were glowing dimly with that binding red as he looked down at Seth but he let no beam be cast on his trusting, smiling face. "I can see why he would do such a thing...that hot-head." Ramuh stopped immediately, giving Seth and Jack a chance to brace themselves as he broke out in his mad cackling laughter once more. **"HOOOOOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOO!!!!**"

"Now" Seth said after the echoes died down "we just need to get down from the mountain without dying."

"Or starving" Jack added with a grin.

"I wish to help!" Ramuh shouted suddenly, lightning crackling from his wide mouth. He raised up his long, wrinkled arm with feathers falling down like wide sleeves and touched the ceiling. "To make amends for holding you here so long, I shall transport you with the speed and power of thunder and lightning to the next demon who holds one of the Gems you seek!"

"Really?" Seth asked, almost bewildered by the instant generosity.

"Any help" Jack said "in our quest will be greatly appreciated."

"Then do this for me" Ramuh said just as the beams of lightning surrounded Jack and Seth. "Answer me...**Why is a Raven like a writing desk?**" With that final confusing riddle Ramuh sent the lightning through the cracks of the ceiling, into the sky and teleported Jack and Seth halfway around the globe in a mere flash of light. Then he slouched down into his throne and sighed off the power he had just exerted with a grin at the edges of his wrinkled beak. "Utter nonsense, that. Hopefully they don't stay up too late pondering it, yes, too late, yes...pondering!"

* * *

Jack and Seth got up from their debilitating disorientation and looked around. The Gem of Lightning was in Jack's one hand and the Gem of Fire was still tight in Seth's glove. They found themselves, somehow, in the middle of an expansive desert in the middle of the frigid night.

"Where are we now?" Seth asked.

"What has that demon done?" Jack asked. He looked to the sky for the stars but saw nothing that wasn't already familiar. However, he also saw nothing that would help him find his direction, namely because he had no idea in what direction anything would lie. "Where is the next Gem keeper?"

"In this desert?" Seth asked. "What element is associated with the desert? We already have fire. Is sand really an element?"

"Perhaps earth?" Jack asked.

"I would assume" Seth said "Such a thing would be better suited for a mountainous region...wait a moment, Jack, your Gem is glowing!" Jack looked over at his Gem in response and saw its crackling bright-green interior giving off sharp rays of light. He aimed the Gem up to the starry sky and a definite guiding beam shone out to the north. Jack looked over at Seth and saw that he was already in a sprinting position.

"It had better be pointing" Seth said "to food right now." Jack grinned and the two raced off, following the ray that radiated from the Gem of unlimited energy!


	12. Episode 12

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XII. Aku and the Bounty Hunter Tournament for Hunting Samurai FOOLS!

* * *

From far off and away, at another distant part of the ruined world, where black spires of gloom and doom rose up from the cracked and blasted earth to give way to a more spectacular sight, an evil mind plotted and schemed. In the epicenter of all the world's evil and despair, all the regret and sadness and darkness, the Shogun of Sorrow, Aku, sat leaning against this hand in his huge throne of stone fire. His terrible eyes drifted slowly shut and then shot back open as if to hope to feign anyone watching into thinking he wasn't actually trying to sleep. Then he slept right into his hand. The fires of his eyebrows died down.

"Master Aku!" a screeching voice called.

"WAH!" Aku shouted, blowing a nasty gust of powerful wind as he shouted and struggled up into his throne. "I'm awake! I am awake! I was not...eh...what is it!?" A messenger, a devoted alien resembling a giant fly wearing a blue bandanna and a ceremonial black unitard over its grotesque body, flew up to his eyes and prepared to give its report in its piercingly high-pitched voice.

"We have relocated the Samurai!" the messenger reported.

"What?" Aku said in quiet awe. "Is it true? The Samurai is once again within my control? Where did he come from, so that we may sweep that area of all its anti-Aku implements?"

"We don't know" the messenger said regretfully. "The Samurai came as fast as lightning from far up north, though we couldn't tell where. He is currently moving east through a desert."

"Is he now?" Aku said. "He's been through the desert and back many, many times, always searching for a trinket or mystic shaman that eludes discovery just long enough for me to claim it moment before he does. Let the fool walk as he wishes. He will do me no harm in a desert, but when his movement goes untraced again, report it to me and send out the nearest army to eradicate the Samurai! His blood shall mix with the sand and disappear from the annals of time, all under my mighty command! HAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!" And so Aku was awake once more, moved by his own motivation and glee over the thought of a helpless, cornered Samurai.

"I have more news, Master" the fly continued.

"Oh" Aku said, sitting back down with a crash. "You should have told me that before I used all my good lines. What else?" His voice was impatient and angered, a precarious edge that the fly knew it was floating across. It handled the busywork that one pair of its many arms held tight and reviewed them.

"A group of bounty hunters" the fly began "has reported at the Colosseum for their training. They await your order to prove their worth in hunting down the Samurai."

"Excellent!" Aku shouted. He stood back up and extended a pointy, black arm up to his roof. He grabbed the air and ripped it down, causing the dimension of his tower to shift and the roof above him went flying and spiraling up. The fly was disoriented and buzzed about in a total fog of confusion over the moving scenery. Aku began dropping down while the fly simply remained, confused, in the main tower. Suddenly, leagues and lands away, inside a huge open-roofed stadium of black brick and obelisk ornaments, Aku descended from the sky in his semi-huge form, landing with a sudden crash, hands folded behind his back and a tired smile on his face, dead center of the ring. He took a moment for the dust to clear so his entrance could be fully absorbed by the gathered mass of bounty hunters. Then, with arms out to the sides, he spoke.

"Greetings, loyal bounty hunters!" he shouted with greatly exaggerated warmth. "You have all journeyed far, endured harsh climate and fought my merciless, infinite robot guard to get here, and your efforts are hereto being recognized by none other than I, the great and almighty Aku!" Aku took a moment to look around at all the bounty hunters. About twenty in all, less than he expected but still a sizable amount. Only one of them could take the job, however, and that competitive tension in the air confirmed what they all knew.

"I trust you are aware of the nature of this place. It is a ring of valor and courage where the mighty draw their swords high in victory after the field is sullied with the blood of his fallen foes. Never before, and never after is such victory declared. Only by remaining as the last man alive in this battle will you earn the right to fight directly under my command as a professional, inter-galactically recognized bounty hunter supreme!!!" Aku paused with a wide grin on his face, expecting cheering. He heard nothing. He only saw the hunters already on the field, but upon a second glance he immediately saw why the stands were not cheering and chanting his name: **an army worth of bodies filled the seats of the stadium, and the bounty hunters below stood grimly in reverence over the deed that put those corpses there.** A sudden flush of embarrassment ran over Aku. He just realized that he had only told these 'professionals' what they already knew, talking down to them in more than one way.

"Yo boss" one bounty hunter, wrapped in a poncho with half his face rotted away, a zombie wearing dusty old clothes from the resurrected Old West, began with a tip of his wide-brimmed hat, "what's the pay on that there Samurai boy?"

"It must be big, like mountain!" another demanded. This one was huge in width and girth but lacking in mirth. A primitive and round fighter with arms strong enough to bend steel and a gut thick enough to shame those who would wield steel against him. "Kim-Kom only want big prize for big fighting!"

"Let's get this over with already" a woman bounty hunter, wearing a lavish silked dress with a frilly plush of feathers and fur at the collar, said. She took out a long-handled scythe, spun it around and placed the blade in front of her face, checking her make-up and perfecting her face with the movement of a single stray hair. "I need to schedule my victory appointment at the spa." Such cock-sure characters and stoic individualism is what Aku had to deal with. Twenty-strong hunters stood at the ready to fight to the death, some less willing to acknowledge their mortality than others. Most of them knew they would suffer, many denied that they would lose, but it was certain that humility was at a stark premium for the day. Aku teleported into a boxed seating arrangement in a smaller, human-sized form, and summoned up a harem of black-skinned female demons to wait on him.

"**BEGIN!!!**" he shrilly called. All the hunters leaped away at the same speed and distance, all of them claiming a round corner of the wall as theirs, and then began their toil of fighting...

* * *

From the corner closest to Aku the zombie gunman made his way across the field, firing his duel laser revolvers in all directions, stirring up a chaotic panic in his favor. The rest of his opponents now had to dodge his constant bullets _and_ fight with each other, both tasks meaning to take up their entire minds. Suddenly he stopped, took a knee, and drew out a long-barreled rifle from his back. He aimed it carefully at one man, a hunter dressed in tight black leather with electric lights that glowed with a myriad of bright and obnoxious colors who maneuvered on roller skates, and he fired a straight laser which blew apart the wall where his shot drifted after he missed.

"Damn" the zombie cursed. The cyber-punk freak with the static pacifer in his zipper mouth and spinning goggles came skating in with incredible speed. He brandished five rings on each hand, one for each finger, each of which projected a laser field around his fingers and extended them into long, multi-colored claws. "Damn...again!" The zombie dodged a high-speed swipe and drew out his guns again, waiting for his opponent to turn around. The freak emitted a long, metallic hum from its 'mouth' and began skating backwards. "He knows I ain't gonna shoot a man in the back!" The zombie dodged with a jump as his opponent kept his back to him the whole time, contorting his body to make deadly swipes from behind without watching the ground around him.

Off in another corner the first casualty was taken, a huge mechanical gorilla losing to a smaller pair of alien-cyborg hybrid creatures.

"Ta-Daaaa!" they shouted at once, holding hands. They were starch white with black lines running up their in-and-out-seams from foot up to perfectly round head. Their faces were made of pixels, just big dots arranged in smiling patterns with happy eyes. They both operated as one, two halves of a greater creation. "No one can stop us!" they bragged in perfect echoing unison. It sounded like a single voice amplified with an identical chorus. Kim-Kom, the huge man with flabby abs of steel, rushed the two with ground-shaking stomps.

"HURAAAAAHHH!!!!" the wide-load shouted. The alien team used each other to flip over him, one jumping up onto the other's hands held above his head and then both managing a full double-bodied somersault over the charging unstoppable object. Once behind him they set themselves up for another attack, one cradled in the grip of the other. Its legs twisted around each other and its arms stiffened into two solid handles. Then its face and its pixels contorted into the shape of a blocky engine and a **gigantic Drill** was made. The one wielding it charged forward and began pressing the sharp tip into Kim-Kom's back. "Huaaagh! Kim-Kom feels a sting!"

The aliens chuckled in a nasty humming unison, their hollow mechanical voices pricking at the giant's ears. They had almost pierced his thick hide, which Aku leaned forward in anticipation to see, but suddenly inadvertent salvation came. With a swift sweeping strike the drill-bit was cleaved off at the alien's waist. It looked down with a sad face at its crackling part, then both looked up in surprise to see their attacker. He kicked off of Kim-Kom's shoulders with a huge, broad sword held over his head and delivered a tremendous descending strike which cleaved both the cyborgs in half. They fell slowly to the ground, crackling energy like blood all over the ground. The man who destroyed them spun his sword around with tricky, spinning fingers and set it neatly on his padded shoulders.

A man in soldier armor of deep purple and black, pants all puffy and stuffed out where they met his heavy boots. His shoulders were covered with some hardened leather pads which reached around his chest to form a full breast-plate. Suspenders kept his tight belt attached to his other armor, running up under his dark-brown armor. He wore a helmet of oddly un-technical design, a simply rounded built-to-fit plastic-composite piece of armor with a wide one-way visor of crystal blue that reflected everything it saw. Then, in his gloved hand, he held a huge sword, a deadly sword, a sword to bust through the powers that faced him down. It's length was tipped by a sharply curved blade, tree sides leading out of the thick, metal bracer connector handle guard. His confidence, even without a visible expression, was definitely palpable and affected Kim-Kom as he turned to see his impromptu messiah.

"Kim-Kom is grateful" he said with a slight bow. The mystery man with the menacing cleaver turned his head, nodded and then took a short leap away. He posed off against Kim-Kom, sword in both hands pointed forward and knees bent in a pre-running position. "Ah! I see! No time for talk while Kim-Kom is around! We fight now!" Kim-Kom prepared to fight out of his repsect and honor, the traits that made him such a great warrior, against this swordsman with no name or face...

* * *

The cocky woman with the scythe jumped away from an explosion and waited for her enemy with the vicious weapon poised on her slender, curved shoulders. A huge mechanical monster with a mane of fire, literally, came charging through the smoke with its wide maw gaping to consume her, many metal blades moving and turning and churning about inside its terrible mouth to rip her apart with. She jumped above it, stopping it sharply in front of the wall, made several direct slices while upside-down, and landed behind it with her legs deeply bent. She straightened up, lit a cigarette against a traveling bullet, and began smoking while the delayed cuts and slashes she made in such swift, flash movements began crackling with electricty form within the beast she just felled.

"What a pitiful display" she said, looking out into the battlefield. "And so unorganized. If I, or any woman, would run this game we would certainly be done by now and **I** would win!"

"You're pretty uppity" a man said "for a girl whose only gotten one official kill so far." She looked over with a patronizing glance and saw a man dressed up in impressive robotic armor stained at the bottom with oil and blood. His suit held the theme of a great lion, a cape of frayed edges and a mane of of glowing orange armor, clawed paws for his boots and blades extending from his fingers. He even wore a tail which swung to and fro behind him with its shiny metallic polish glinting in the dark sky. His face was exposed behind an orange visor, a jaded and aged face of a man who had worked all his life to acclaim his current status. He certainly was one of the few who held the right to brag, but she would have none of it.

"You're the Lion of Gothica" the woman said, remarking silently on his well-known record. "I see that this opportunity hasn't passed your deaf ears."

"I am old" the Lion admitted, "but at least I am smart enough to know my own limits, unlike many other old men here. Most of them are dead now, and **I killed them.**"

"Good for you" she said. "But while all you morons played at your little rally party in the stands I was preparing for the real game, so you tell me who has more wit!" She charged, scythe drawn to slice, and attacked with a heavy downward attack. The Lion of Gothica simply stepped to the side and let her scythe bounce from the hard ground. She spun on her pointed heel and delivered another attack with a full-circle swing, but the Lion jumped over it and kicked at her. She spun away and came back in swinging, first with a short attack at his head which led into a full one-armed swing. She made a kick to end her combo, a mistake, as the Lion grabbed her leg and stomped backwards to build up his energy. Then he threw her in an arc over his head and into the air where he jumped after her.

"**Golden Lion Fire!**" he shouted. He brought his fists together, mechanically opened the center of his chest armor, and exposed a glowing golden jewel which started resonating with powerful gold fire. He parted his arms and brought his legs together, taking a cross-like pose, and his solid orange mane started to flicker up like an energetic fire. A blast of golden energy shot into the sky, engulfing the scythe-wielder until she could not be seen. Then, his energy spent, he fell gracefully back to his hands and feet, bringing himself up from the low crouch with his arms crossed. A moment later her body slammed into the ground, followed by her scythe sticking blade-down beside her. Her clothes were tattered but still clung precariously to the more important parts of her body and her face radiated with impassible rage.

"Give up" the Lion said. "You are young. You have a long life to lead. Come back to fight me in a few decades and we'll see just who between us is better." Confident in his victory he began to walk away, unaware of just whom he had taunted. She stood up, climbing on her scythe handle, and smirked.

"Very well" she said. "The **Time Temptress Vendetta** will see you in 30 years!" The Lion's old eyes shot wide open and he turned around with a start.

"The Time Temptress?" he said, finally realizing who he was fighting. "If I had known...curse my own hubris! I may very well be outmatched! She is a woman who has the ability of **time travel!!!**" Vendetta, in all her raven-haired loveliness, began swirling with an arcane aura and suddenly exploded into a thick black miasma. The Lion retreated as it reached out for the life all around. Two scuffling bounty hunters were caught in the field and consumed by the mist. The Lion waited for it to clear, as did the great Aku, who pressed his face against the window in anticipation.

"What is going on!?" Aku demanded. "Why did no one tell me of this sorceress!?"

"Whom?" an aid asked. Aku banished that clueless one and went on fuming at the window, his brow of flames kicking up at his rage.

"A woman who can travel through time" he pondered. "Surely the Samurai has heard of her as well...? But she is a bounty hunter?" The mist began to sink into the rock-hard ground, ceasing to exist on this plane once more. In place of the previous woman who wore far too fashionable clothing to this fight there stood a taller and much more powerful looking woman whom time had barely touched. She twirled the scythe effortlessly between two fingers, nails painted an eloquent purple. Her suit now was a battle-ready suit of curvy plates and skin-tight shielding. The skin suit covered all of her skin down to her feet and up to her neck where she let her face be fully exposed. Her black hair was done up in a bun with two daggers pierced through to keep it together, and her lips were stained with a venomous, seething shade of black. Even her eyes were shadows with a soul-sucking shade of darkness which no light could pierce. Over her sleek, narrow eyes were violet-tinted glasses of post-modern style from 30 years ahead.

The Lion looked over her form, judging its combat capacity, and then looked around at the rest who stood to see the shift in their most dangerous adversary. The Zombie gunman and the Freak he fought stopped the moment the mist had cleared and felt the dread well up within them. Kim-Kom had already been defeated and laid belly-down with blood trailing from his face, but his Soldier opponent looked over his shoulder and down the field. The two bounty hunters previously caught up in the mist were reduced to rusty scrap and bones, time having taken them into a much darker place. Vendetta smiled at the attention and spun her scythe around with amazing speed using only her index and middle fingers on her left hand. Then she grabbed it, pointed it at the Lion, and smiled.

"Now" she said in a voice matured through the decades with a soft yet burning seduction, "let us see who aged the best!" The Lion showed no fear. He poised himself, arms clacking together then parting in a pounce-ready pose, while she spun the scythe around and set it behind her, ready to dash forward.

"I wonder" Aku said, rubbing his fiery beard, "if having her on my side is good...or not..."


	13. Episode 13

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XIII. Vendetta vs. the Lion vs. the Gunman vs. the Soldier

* * *

"**HEE-HEE-HEEEEEE!!!**" Screeched the laughing voice of one random bounty hunter. He held in his hand a flaming pumpkin with a nasty, jagged smile which was aimed at another bounty hunter, a huge tangerine-haired gorilla wearing a bandanna, a jet pack and wielding a semi-automatic gun. "You're out of luck punk! No one gets one over on **Unlucky 13!!!**" The bounty hunter was an amalgamation of childish horror. A pumpkin head over its flaming skull-face and feathered witch's hat, a dark and musty mantle that hid a belt of throwing knives which grew into a cape that reached the ground. His whole body was skeletal, bleach-white bones connected with air-distorting dark magics. The creatures still wore pants, long and slim, boots made of an undead cow's hide, an old, medieval peasant's tunic which was sucked into its exposed ribs and pressed against its bare spine, and gloves which ended in jagged, floating tips.

"How irksome you are" the gorilla said in and eloquent accent. "I only regret not disposing you in the preliminary matches!"

"This is chaos!" 13 exclaimed with glee, tossing the pumpkin at the gorilla. He dodged it and rode the explosive wave of black magic it cast forward, punching 13 in his non-existent stomach. The brute force was enough to cause the spine of the monster to shatter and still there was enough pure force to send him tumbling backwards, pumpkin head over curly-shoe heel.

"**HEE-HEEEEEE!!!!**" 13 laughed. It rose back up slowly, the brim of its hat angling its glowing eyes in a most evil way. "What good can that do? A monkey-paw against my magic bones? You'll have better luck in the lottery than you will beating me with your primitive power!!! **HEEE!!!**"

"Do cease that incessant squealing" the gorilla asked politely. All this occurred after Vendetta had exited her temporal spell and came back in her more powerful form from 30 years into the future. She still stood carefully measuring her opponent, the Lion of Gothica in his brilliant, shining armor, while he stood measuring her back. "I say, 13, do you see that? Can you not feel that disturbing cosmic pulse in your only bones?" 13 flipped backwards and landed on a vine which magically sprouted from the ground. It suddenly grew out a pumpkin, inflating it like a balloon, and a face was suddenly carved upon it. 13 sat on the vine when it grew tall enough and stretched its magical grin along its pumpkin face, adding spikes and teeth with every inch it spread.

"What are you talking about?" 13 asked. "You know you're a loser. Against me, there's no hope and not enough luck in all the world to help you."

"Don't deter the point" the gorilla demanded. "Even Aku is at his wit's end. An anomaly has taken place, a great displacement of energy here in this Circus Maxima. That Femme fatale has pulled a most interesting trick and upset the natural order in the process!"

"So?" 13 asked. "That's not going to help you either!" The gorilla was becoming unamused with the constant non-linear interruptions but stayed true to his point.

"Unlucky 13" the gorilla politely began, "allow me to make with you a pact of trust. A treaty, no, a temporary ceasefire so that we may call our arms to fighting a greater foe at present."

"You wanna team up?" 13 asked. "You're really willing to test what little luck you have by breaking the rules?"

"There are no rules here" the gorilla said. "At least, none that Aku has specifically given us. He assumes we are all to skirmish until he finds his victor, but if a power like Vendetta's is left unchecked we may not stand even the slightest chance. Aku will most definitely play favorites and manipulate the rules in time to allow Vendetta to win no matter what! It is really all of our luck that has run out at this point!"

"Screw Aku!" 13 squealed. "I'm gonna kill that bitch!" 13 jumped from its vine and began running in the direction of the fighting, but was stopped by the demanding call of the mighty beast.

"Halt!" the gorilla shouted. 13 turned with its magical smile still hissing from its wide pumpkin face and saw an extended, hair hand. "Agree to my terms. We will fight _with_ each other, no against, until the two of us are left. Then the better being shall win the day. It is the only fair thing to do, and luck is not a part of the wager. You've nothing to lose but your life."

"Well" 13 hummed, "so long as I can keep my luck...**and yours.**"

"I am well aware of your power" the gorilla said. "I shall agree to handing over my luck to you should I lose or die prematurely."

"No no" 13 said, extending a hand without the glove, a nasty skeletal hand which swirled with untamed and wild mystic energy. "**Right now.**" The gorilla was skeptical but desperate. He shook hands, taking the small bones into his huge palm, and let the energy drain from him. He needn't luck anyway, not with the logic of coincidence and reason on his side, he never believed in luck. 13 held his gloved hand out to the vine behind him and let it grow into his hand, forming a staff with a plump pumpkin at the end. He stabbed it into the ground, shaking the leaves off and replacing them with jagged thorns, and a terribly jagged scythe blade grew from the gaping mouth of the pumpkin's face. It looked purely evil, with a chaotically curving and swerving and pointed blade and a smooth, curved blunt side.

"I suppose" the gorilla said "you fancy yourself better than she with such a style of weapon."

"Oh, I am" 13 confirmed with a growl. "Such training cannot surpass **pure, lucky skill with a scythe!** By the way, I haven't gotten your name quite yet, have I?"

"**Mango Mandril**" the gorilla answered. "Although, neither title is exactly correct. It is more rhythmic that 'Tangerine Ape', though."

"Enough BS" 13 exclaimed, turning on his bony toes. "Let's get to killing! **HEE-HEEEE!!!!**" He rushed forward, Mango right behind with weapon in hand, charging towards the building fight...

* * *

Vendetta twirled her scythe around hand and wrist, over and over, creating little streaks of misty white lines where the circles of her blade were completed.

"Tick-Tock" she mocked, pacing backwards while the hungry Lion stared her down through his blazing visor. "Your time is dying, old lion..." She stopped whirling her scythe at last and poised it, blade tip forward, handle pressed at her back. The Lion went low in a step, stretching his legs out and keeping his glorious claws tensed. The fangs in his helmet were glowing, as were his jaded but powerful eyes. Vendetta glared back with a smile on her ageless, beautiful and mature face. Suddenly, between the both of them an intrusion came, kicking up dust. The freak in black bondage gave chase with his energy claws. He entered the edge of the dust cloud and was thrown back with four bullets carrying him away. The dust parted from the streams of air those bullets and that body had left, revealing the zombie Gunman with four arms in total drawn out from his poncho.

"Damn" he groaned. "I didn't wanna hafta use these until...well, let's just say I'm ahead a' schedule..." The zombie took one gun back into its sheathe and then took the shriveled, dead hand back into his inner poncho. Out of there, to the tension and shock of the fighters he had interrupted, he revealed a cigarette which he placed in the better side of his mouth. Then he shot it with one of his guns and took the extra hand back down to draw the sheathed gun out again. "Ah, I'm sorry" he said suddenly, taking the cigarette into his fingers. "I didn't know I was interrupting ya'." Vendetta and the Lion both closed in at the same instant, clashing blades as they missed their intended target, the zombie gunman. He was air-borne now, flipping off his spark-igniting spurs to create a blast of fire to propel him up. Lion and Vendetta met eyes, pushed away, and reengaged with an intended clash of claw on blade!

"Hi there" a raspy and mischievous voice greeted from above. The gunman looked up in surprise to see a jack-o-lantern hanging above him with a distinctively festive hat and brandishing a wicked looking scythe. 13 tipped the brim of his hat and glared down with his sharp grin and wide, staring eyes. "Let's party!!!" The gunman tried to react in time, but unfortunately his precise timing was just barely off. Instead of shooting through the blade and hitting his target his guns were thrown to the side and his bullets were fired into the ground while 13 started spinning around with his powerful scythe swing carrying him, ready to eviscerate the walking dead man with a flurry of attacks.

"Dammit!" the gunman cursed. He whipped out yet another arm, this one from under his dusty shirt, and held up a flash bomb. 13 saw it and morphed his face into one of shock, perfectly carved circles for eyes and a one-toothed 'O' shaped mouth. The bomb went off, blinding most of the hunters. Thankfully, Aku had used his own black skin to form a pair of shades and saw past the light. The gunman floated down to the ground and attempted to reengage from his own vantage, shooting at the descending and struggling 13. 13, however, was not struggling. He was moving away from the bullets, using his own accumulated luck to dodge the bullets on the lucky winds he regularly rode. When he landed he spun his scythe around and started deflecting the bullets while limply dancing around.

"Oooo!" Aku awed. He saw the monkey wearing his own pair of light-blocking goggles as he made his fist-over-foot way into the main battle. Vendetta and Lion fought despite the flash, two amazing fighters who moved on their instincts and relied on no single sense, dancing around each other in a deadly storm of blades. Her scythe made hollow roars as it sliced through the air, his claws growled and snarled as his fists drove them at her from all directions. She sought to cleanly cut his head off, he just wanted her dead. She fought with subtle substance and style, he fought like the very animal he was named for, a ruthless killer out for the life blood of its prey.

It was an amazing sight to watch. While Vendetta and the Lion dueled the other surviving forced moved into each other and prepared for a battle royale. 13 fought the gunman, throwing pumpkins that exploded like deadly Napalm bombs from afar and then swooping in with scythe in hand to hack and slice at the gunman. The zombie avoided the fires, knowing it would be the almost instant death of him, and kept 13 at bay with his four revolvers. Two more arms he had hidden away, only one trick left to save his life. Then he would be out of options. 13 drew in dangerously close, swinging away and spinning around with each attack. The gunman wouldn't dare betray his honor and shoot an opponent in the back, it's just his way, but a well-timed stab could be of great benefit. The gunman thusly took a bayonet and affixed it to his lower left gun with his extra arm and stabbed at 13's sunken gut when it rotated in his direction.

While the gunman was caught in the close combat of the maniac skeleton, the Soldier made a grand re-entrance by throwing the body of Kim-Kom over shoulder and nearly crushing Mango Mandril. He had to stop and somersault back while the Soldier came in with his blade in a killing position, both hands held pointed forward, arms fully extended down to the ground he lurched over. Mango backed up and fired a burst of shots from his gun. The Soldier brought his broad blade up and deflected the bullets. Mango strategically made a shot to cover all of his body, one he didn't think would be blocked, but all the bullets he fired were blocked by the inhumanly swift movements of the huge, metal blade.

* * *

"What power!" Aku awed as he watched the spectacle. Vendetta and the Lion finally broke apart, allowing the Lion time to clutch at his chest and charge the Golden Lion Beam attack. Vendetta charged in and began hitting him with the blunt pommel end of her scythe. The Lion couldn't endure it any longer and let out a short-charged blast which nearly hit both 13 and the gunman. Both dodged it and reengaged shortly thereafter, the gunman blocking a scythe attack with his gun and pumping three barrels worth of rounds into 13's skeletal frame. The freak was jostled and shook with each hit. When the gunman's rounds were exhausted he brought up a stern, spurred foot up and kicked the frail one away.

"What ferocity!" Aku exclaimed. The Soldier made swing after swing at Mango who rolled and jumped and leaned away from every attack. Eventually the Soldier changed tactics and threw his blade, tip pointed forward, at the monkey. Mango was so stunned by the act alone that he didn't notice the Soldier coming up to plant two fists into his chest. Then two palms on his gut. The gorilla felt a heaving sickness welling up from deep within him, an obvious sign that the Soldier had done something right in his moves to cripple his opponent. Then, while Mango was stunned, the Soldier jumped up and kicked him with both feet and fell to the ground. He managed to rolled into a hand-stand and went forward into a crouch. His sword was lodged into the wall, right behind where Mango was recovering his dignity and stomach as well as his footing. The Soldier pressed a hidden button on his metallic bracer and held out his hand. His sword dislodged itself from the wall and flew into his hand, knocking out an unaware Mango on its way.

"What skill!" Aku shouted. 13 felt a sudden chill as he pieced himself back together. The gunman thought he was defeated and ran for the main event, the ongoing fight between the wise and well-known Lion of Gothica and the Temptress of Time herself, a mystic legend from lands and alien species unknown. He aimed to take whatever prize he wanted for himself in a cunning blaze of gunfire but he never accounted for his luck to run out so soon. 13 raised himself back up by simply raising back up onto his heels, defying gravity like some strange, magical creature. From behind, vines were raising him up by pushing on his pumpkin head, vines grown from the scythe he still held tight in hand.

Once he was back up on his feet he switched his weapon between hands and began a mad sprint for the growing battle. The Soldier, however, dashed in front of him and delivered a powerful swing, disconnecting his skull with his body and lobbing his pumpkin head high into the air. The body still ran, however, a glowing outline of some featureless face with white orbs as eyes occupying he lost head. The Soldier held his sword low in his right hand and aimed the blade vertically in front. Then he lightly pressed his left palm into the blunt backside of the blade and concentrated. The air around him began to move, his own power throwing the dust and destruction of battle away as he gathered his strength.

"Oooooo!!!" Aku squealed with excitement, his dark form teetering at the edge of his throne. "What now? What now!? Is he going to **destroy them all!?**" The Soldier's power suddenly stopped and gathered into him, an implosion of energy forming a powerful core within his blade. Echoing ripples of energy pulsed out of his sword and into the air as flashes of magical light. An arcane fire of raw power formed at his feet and blew out in rings around him. He took his sword back up, held it horizontally, which seemed a daunting enough task on its own, and bent his knees in preparation to charge. 13 looked back, an aura of panic around him, and saw the Soldier standing for only a moment. After that moment, a brief lapse in time, the world around him faded and a new realm of pain was opened, as the Soldier dashed forward to initiate his tremendous attack! First a slash from shoulder to hip, then a horizontal sweep, a stab, a stomp leading into another cross-body cut, a spinning strike, a sharp blow through the head, again a stab, slice, strike, stab slash crash slice blast strike! Slice! Cut! Gash! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Then he jumped. All the noise and chaos died down for just a moment while the Soldier hung in the air, the rest of his energy gathering into the blade to charge its final attack. 13 was already in pieces, he didn't know just how things could get any worse from this point, but they did. While his physical body was in dusty chunks and bits, his energy body of magic bound by stolen luck was still present. He felt his luck leave him as he realized just what this final attack would hit...**his spirit.**

"Damn" 13 cursed with a creepy white grin forming on its blue face-shaped head. "Looks like...my luck...just ran out...! Hee-hee...!" With that final word the Soldier dropped, blade sinking into the ground with an explosive crash, cleaving the energy that formed 13 straight in half. Once all the noise and chaos cleared the rest of the fighters looked on with a mix of nervous anticipation and excitement. The Soldier simply pulled his sword from the ground, spun it around in an exhibition of power and finally set it into its sheathe at his back, a victory pose.

"Well shoot!" the gunman exclaimed with an undead grin.

"My my..." Vendetta seductively hummed. "I wouldn't mind taking _him _on..."

"He's quite strong" the Lion admitted with pride "but rough around the edges." The Soldier kept a steady right hand on his blade handle. He noticed all the stares he was getting, especially the one coming from between the woven fingers of the mighty Aku high above, and he quickly straightened his gaze to meet his next opponent. He took a deep step forward, stomping the broken ground before him, and swung his sword into play, wielding it in both hands. The blade was aimed to take someone down and his feet were pressed hard into the ground, a pounce ready and waiting to happen.

Aku was pleased. A wide, green smile formed from side to side of his pitch-black, evil face and his eyes flickered with excited flames of anticipation. One of these tremendously powerful, cunning, skillful and amazing bounty hunters would be the one to hunt down the nigh-invincible Samurai Jack...


	14. Episode 14

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XIV. The Godly Lion of Gothica

* * *

The Soldier charged in with a blast, pushing off and gliding along the ground with his sword pointed forward. Vendetta the Time Temptress and the Lion of Gothica were both primed and ready to engage him, but the lone zombie Gunman was his destined target. The quick-draw artist took notice to his impending doom and drew out his guns, all four, and fired a constant volley at the charging soldier. His mighty sword swung down and made his feet skid off the ground, though four of the shots had been blocked. He started spinning forward, kicking and swinging his sword to propel himself, all while blocking the relentless fire from the one-man execution squad.

"He's energetic" Vendetta said seductively biting her nail. The Lion warped over and positioned his clawed fingers at her throat, standing straight up and glaring at her with his threat hanging in the air. "You really are an impatient man, you know that?" She took her scythe up from the ground and warped away with fantastic speed. The Lion pursued her and clashed his bladed fingers with her weapon. Smiled grimly from her beauteous, mature face while he audibly snarled under his helmet.

The Soldier continued blocking, this time anticipating the random trajectories of the bullets and blocking with the broadest width of his huge metal blade accordingly. The speed he moved that huge hunk of metal with was nothing short of astounding, especially for a human without any kind of alien or cybernetic implants. His arms weren't even that thick, not through the puffy dark-violet sleeves he wore. His strength was just such that wielding that huge weapon and using it as a shield for bullets was a simple task for him. The Gunman was becoming desperate now and unveiled his fifth arm with a secret weapon, a small hand-made grenade.

"You're about as annoying" the Gunman began "as a rattlesnake up my spine! Eat some Tabasco** Bomb** smoke, ya idgit!" The Gunman through his trump card right under the Soldier's guard. A red explosion of gunpowder and a huge plume of smoke came afterward. The Soldier was sen retreating form the cloud by rolling out from behind and flipping himself back up by thrusting the tip of his blade at the ground. He landed perfectly on his feet and looked around. His suit was stained red now with the smokey effects of the bomb but his senses hadn't suffered from the debilitating effects of the tobasco. The Gunman, having a hole in his sinuses and no sinuses at all besides that, simply walked through the cloud with new weapon in arms.

"Let's git down to the **reeeal** business, pilgrim..." Two shotguns, old fashion sightless with the wide-spread custom barrel and the double-barrel loading, crossed at his chest wielded in his four arms like crossbones. He drew out his secret fifth and sixth arms, both wielding his revolvers spinning around the rotted fingers, and let his poncho blow away in the battling wind. "Draw...!" he growled. The Soldier set his weapon and prepared...

Meanwhile, the explosive battle between famous and infamous continued as the regal, righteous Lion of Gothica, hero to many and bane to all who opposed him, fought the newest object of Aku's affection. Vendetta the Time Temptress, a sorceress who could walk through time itself, wielding a scythe symbolic of old Father Time, reaper of the past and planter of the future. He aimed to bestow her bust upon his mantle as a proud trophy of his conquest, she aimed to plant the seeds of a Lion-less future with her scythe. They clashed over and over, sustained only on their mutual hatred for the other's life and the love of their own, blasting sparks all over the battlefield.

The Lion finally pushed away and gained ground, taking his right claw to his chest where the Golden Beam generator was. Vendetta floated gingerly down to the ground, spun once on her heel and then charged forward.

"**Golden WAVE!!!**" the Lion called. He took his claw away, stepped back and made a ripping gash of sparkling gold in the air. Five blades made from his swipe traveled with extreme speed at Vendetta. She smiled and dodged away from them, but fell prey to the Lion's trap, for the speedy warrior was already there, anticipating her dodge, and connected a powerful kick to her back. She tumbled away once, allowing the old sage of battle to pursue her, and he swiped at her once again with burning, golden claws. His nails were thrust hard into the ground where she had been. Vendetta appeared some distance away, spinning her scythe across and over her slender, seductive shoulders while turning in the opposite direction.

"I'll pluck you from time" she shouted "like a grape from the vine!" Aku sank back into his chair, still watching the fights, but with a flat and embarrassed look at what Vendetta had said.

"Something wrong, master?" one of the servant girls asked.

"I have enough henchmen" Aku began "who spout atypical, poorly-written nonsense. I could do without the foolish catchphrases, it will only be another opening for the Samurai to attack!" Still, Vendetta went along with her own banter, bad as it was, and grabbed her scythe as she spun. She continued spinning, inching ever forward through time, warping from space to space as she closed the gap with the Lion. He finally pulled his claws out and pounded his knuckles together. The visor in the mouth of his helmet started to whir to a close.

"You foolish girl" the Lion proclaimed. "You only know my name, my stature...but do you really know why they call me the Lion of Gothica? I will tell you, this armor is not the source. **I have had that name for over a hundred years! RAAAAAARGH!!!**" The mouth suddenly closed. Finally, Vendetta had gotten close enough and made her attack, swinging her scythe with tremendous force into the neck of his armor. It did nothing. If anything it only made the Lion more certain of what needed to be done.

"Master Aku" a curious servant girl asked, "why _do_ they call him that?"

"Because" Aku began with a tiny hint of aggravation, "over a hundred years ago he claimed a source of great, galactic power that took the form of a once-in-a-millennium meteor shower. It escaped my own grasp, being too pure for me to touch, and took the form of a mighty being in the form of a Lion...that man, as a boy, made a pact with that Lion and obtained amazing powers of transformation. He became known as the Keeper of the Lion, but as he made his name known as a brave and brilliant mercenary...he took on the name the Lion of Gothica."

"I see" the girl said, amazed. Vendetta stared star-struck into the star-filled void within the monster's mouth, the gaping mouth of a God. "So...he is the most powerful one..."

* * *

The Soldier and the Gunman continued their stand off at point-blank range, too close for the shotguns of the Gunman to hit. Each slug was sliced out of the air by the impossibly slick and precise movements of the Soldier's blade as it swung and swerved, blocked and blazed in chaotic patterns no simple human could possibly make with such a heavy weapon.

"C'mon!" the Gunman growled. He unloaded his revolvers as well, but the bullets were sliced away before they could reach a full piercing potency as semi-solid projectiles. "They don't make bullets like they used'ta, do they?" The Soldier ignored him. He was out for his dusty blood, not his jargon'd speeches. The Soldier jumped straight up, out of the Gunman's fire, and pushed himself so his center was lined back up. He took his blade back in one hand, aiming down the broad end and measuring up the distance with his other hand open in far in front. "This rodeo's outta control. Time to hit the dusty trail..." The Gunman seemed defeated. He knew what kind of destructive force was packed behind that coming flying thrust. He threw his guns down and tucked the brim of his hat down over his eyes. The Soldier blasted forward off of an arcane, battle-heavy aura that gathered all around his feet and prepared to make his ground-splitting stab.

The Gunman, through his half-rotten mouth, grinned widely. He shot up, flipped his hat off, and let it fall back into his hand. It reformed in a liquid gathering of some metallic mixture as a gun and the simple armor he wore under his discarded poncho did the same. All that silver-gray material came slithering up into the same point, forming a huge long-barreled rifle that hummed with a dark-red energy.

"Meet **Dusty Ol' Road!**" the Gunman announced. "I hope you get along with yourself alright, cause this gun's gonna send you down that road for a long time! **YEEE-HAAAW!**" The Soldier couldn't stop. A blast like this, one composed of such solid and powerful energy, he couldn't dodge it. He couldn't block it. Instead, proving himself ever the brave young mercenary, he continued his driving dive and met the blast head on. A huge geyser of dark-red energy shot into the sky and blasted the smokey clouds into a sandy dust that fell softly through the air. Even Aku didn't know the outcome of that battle, nor did he seem to care about it. The battle against the two most powerful and intriguing fighters was still developing before him.

Brave but foolish and cocky Vendetta had met her match and was thrown tumbling head over feet, scythe desperately clutched in her hands. She looked up from the ground where she stopped and saw the new form that she had to face. The embodiment of a proud being turned to a brutish weapon. The Lion of Gothica.

This monster stood tall, three times the size of a normal lion with a mane of golden, blowing fire. It's body was shining with that same golden spark, ever glistening in the light that was so pale and weak in comparison. It's face, now unmistakably that of a lion, glowed with a white-hot intensity, a purity only accentuated by the pitch-blackness and swirling patterns of stars in its mouth and eyes. The underside of its body was more fur than plain pure gold, short and billowing like a field of Savannah grass. In contrast to the purely animal side of the beast its front arms took a closer resemblance to those of a strong human, sinewy and thick with the glowing bladed claws, where the hind legs stayed true to the animal form but bulged with such strong muscular structure. Even its tail, which whipped around and shined its golden torch all over the place, seemed to have trained muscles within it.

Vendetta breathed heavily. Such a monster was out of even her league. However, being the mistress of time, she did know of a method to defeat this beast. After all, in all the futures she had visited, this man wasn't there, and all of her computing and research in those eras led his perilous death back to this very place **on this very day.**

"Imbecile!" Vendetta growled. Her scythe vanished as she drew her arms up over her head and let her wrists limply dangle her hands behind her raven-black hair. "You think I would keep my strongest form in the future, where all of my growth has stopped? You underestimate me. I know the key to defeating you is not force but tactics! I may not be able to understand you in this present, but I can easily bring myself to a higher level of understanding with just the quickest flick of my wrist!" Vendetta pointed her hand forward and prepared to snap. Even before her fingers completed that movement, however, the Lion came up and swatted her away with the back of its strong arm.

_**ROOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!**_Vendetta flew into the air, near the body-covered stairs, but was stopped by the stone-solid bony heel of the Lion's rear paw. He already managed to get himself into position and kicked her towards Aku's seat. Then, magically, he jumped from the air in a long arc over Vendetta's flight path, faster than he had hit her, and met up with her just before the dark lord's seating was invaded. **RAAAAAARGH!!! **One stern punch straight to the ground and Vendetta exploded into a cloud of mysterious blackness.

* * *

The Lion suspended himself, standing erect and glowing in all direction, observing the spell carefully. The victorious glaring of some metal across the battlefield caught his sharp, cosmic eyes. He looked over, saw the long metallic implement coming from the smoky remains of the other battle, and then watched as **the Soldier** sheathed his sword at his back once more, carrying little more than a few scuffs on his suit.

"Huh?" Aku grunted curiously. Even against such a terrific attack on the Gunman's part, that nameless mercenary held up and was still ready for battle. The Gunman, apparently, was dead. Once the smoke cleared there was no trace of him. Vanished under the cloak of war, it seemed. The Soldier looked now at his new adversaries who still prepared for their own duel to continue. The darkness once more crept into its own center, providing form for the mistress who had summoned it. This time, from out of time, there stood a tall girl in trendy, brightly colored clothes.

Her short jeans were cut just at her waist and held up by suspenders that crossed over her rainbow-clad body protectively. She wielded two marvelously ornate hand-scythes, carved straight from some ancient metal and bejeweled by such wonderfully sparkling gems. Her silken black hair was tied up by huge beaded bindings in pigtails. She wore knee-high socks and kiddy combat boots adorned with stickers all in pretty colors. The younger part of Vendetta, her ignorant and innocent malicious form where she would take on the world with nothing but a wide grin and glaring eyes. And a flat chest.

"Here, kitty kitty" she hummed in her adolescent voice. She stepped forward and twirled her scythes with a masterful proficiency above and around her head, leaning forward and glaring up with a hungry look. "Come get some painy-wainy!" The Lion was unamused. He snarled and shot straight down to the ground. Then, with incredible rage, the Lion made a bladed claw sweep at the girl. With her light weight and powerful, natural muscles she simply flipped over his attack and initiated one of her own, cleaving two thick gashes into the monster's shoulders.

**GRAAAAAHHH!!!!** the Lion roared in pain. Vendetta landed behind him and went to work on continuing her vicious attack. She stabbed and sliced at his hind legs, trying to swing around the steel-solid tail that whipped around instinctively to block her efforts. The Lion recovered finally and whipped himself around, slicing with his long claws in a counter attack.

"Yes!" Aku exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat. The Lion made one swipe too long and too wide, leaving himself open for the slender and nimble Vendetta to swoop in an make a rising double-swing straight up, cutting the flowing field of fur of the Lion's chest. The beast reeled up and roared in pain, only leaving himself open for more attacks. "YES!" Aku shouted, jumping up from his lazy throne. Vendetta brought her blades to her shoulders and made a double-bladed swipe attack, clipping his stomach with the scissor force of the two blades meeting so powerfully. Vendetta, in her brilliance and floating on her nimble feet, was winning this battle. It was a glorious thing for Aku to watch.

"**YESSS!!!**" Aku roared, exploding up as a tower of black. The Lion was crippled, kneeling down before the power and speed of the little girl who felled him. He bled from his mouth, all from the pain he felt, and his arms were so sore that it felt like the blood that covered them had caught fire. Vendetta was smiling victoriously. She felt that she had won, and with a twirl of her blade to arm herself, she prepared to finalize her victory with the last powerful motion.

"Bye bye, kitty-cat" she said snottily. "I'm a dog person, anyway." Her blade was raised up high, ready to clash down, but just before that final attack came to be the Lion revealed its final brilliant trick. The last of its reserves. It roared with space-shattering force, the blackness of its cosmic maw spewing out into the open air, and silenced the world. No sound came from the area of its echoing roar. The clouds that heard him were stopped dead in the sky. All was still but the Lion and its prey. She took the face of a scared, doomed creature, one that stared into the opening mouth of its killer, and felt timeless fear.

"The Gods within me have convened" the Lion growled "and have reached a consensus. Your existence is pitiful, a blotch upon the world. I, the Lion of Gothica, great golden deity of justice and its power, shall carry out the order brought forth by my counsel and kill you."

"...no..." Vendetta squeaked. The Lion, now sparkling as a being made of darkness and stars, opened its white-hot mouth under its white-hot star eyes, and charged a new attack. "**...NOOOOOOO!!!!!!**"

Time and space wept at this battle. In a flash moment, Vendetta froze time to escape her death and began to flee in the Soldier's direction. "You won't get me, you meany, meany kitty-cat! I'm invincible! I can control time! **I am the Time Tempt**-" Her mouth was shut. Her brain was jarred. Vendetta was stuck in time with a monster, the Soldier who had slammed the blunt of his sword into the back of her head...


	15. Episode 15

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XV. Seth and the Desert of Bending Time

* * *

Thanks to Ramuh's last-minute magical gift, Jack and Seth found themselves wandering in a seemingly endless desert. Jack found it nostalgic, recounting the number of times when he found himself in some seclusive desert locale to fight the encroaching enemies or to fend off such detestable ambushes that erupted forth from the dunes. Seth was simply irked. Walking in the hot sun wearing almost all leather. Jack and his breeze kimono robe didn't know his suffering, so he walked apart enough from Jack to hide his grimace under his collar.

"We should find shelter before nightfall" Jack said.

"Yes" Seth agreed. "We wouldn't want to get caught in the extreme cold. Not when we have the power of eternal _fire_ in our hands..." Seth waited for the sarcasm to land. It took a second longer than he expected and he sighed. "I'm sorry, Jack. In trught this adventure is turning out to be more profitable than I had even anticipated...but I am becoming worried over my own treasures already gathered."

"You mean the white Gem?" Jack asked. "Back at your hideout?"

"Yes" Seth said. "If Aku were to find it, or one of his drones, it would spell out nothing but disaster for us. That single Gem is the key to destroying Aku. The ones we gather are merely catalysts so that we can safely search for the Gem's true wielder and defend ourselves from Aku's pursuit." Jack nodded in understanding and looked through the clear red of the Fire Gem. It showed no path, unfortunately, like it had the last time.

"Check the lightning Gem" Jack said to Seth. Seth drew it out, as he was the only one with the precautionary equipment to carry it with without fear of shock, and looked through it. He pointed it to the sky, to the ground, all around himself, but it stayed translucent. He surrendered himself to its mystery with a defeated sigh and turned to Jack with his head shaking. "There must be some way to make our journey easier."

"It wouldn't be a quest" Seth said "without some kind of obstacles for us to overcome." Jack looked up into the bright, desert sky and heard the sun blazing down upon him. He was just about to take something from within his robes when the wind began to pick up and pelt him with sand.

"Quickly!" Jack exclaimed. "A sandstorm is coming! We must find some kind of shelter!" Seth looked around, just as sure as his more experienced comrade that some kind of storm was indeed coming, but he didn't see a single spec of protruding safety, no rocks or dead trees or even shallow dips between the dunes for them to hide in. They were exposed to the whipping windy elements and the beating, slashing sand. Then, suddenly, Seth was struck with brilliance. He took the lightning Gem and tried to flare it up with the same fiery passion that activated the fire Gem, but to no avail.

"If we could somehow use the Gems" Seth began across the building winds, "we could simply blast our way through the storm!" Jack looked over his Gem for a moment and thought. He was desperate enough to believe it. Even against nature such brute force was a thing too foolish to attempt, but right now the chances looked equally slim of them finding good cover from this storm. So, with the Gem grasped tight and kicking up its magical flames, he nodded and dashed over. Just as he was about to reach Seth to congregate their powers, the storm took a spontaneous turn for the worst. A dull thud sound overcame their senses and they were soon thrust straight up into the air, among all that thrashing sand and slashing desert grain...

A while later Seth found himself alone in the expansive desert. It was night, a frigid one at that, where even the bravest and most ferocious of lizards and other desert creatures dared not dwell in the life-sucking moonlight. Seth was warm in the tight embrace of his comfortable leather garb and got himself up to start walking. He first brushed himself off and shifted his body around to judge how much sand had invaded his personal space. Then, feeling no good results, he took off his coat and shook it out violently, keeping the Gem closer by in his pants pocket.

"I can't believe this" Seth lowed. "Damn that demon. Those demons. All of them! If they didn't exist I'm sure Jack and I would have much less trouble getting these Gems. Even if Aku himself was hoarding them in some unreachable tower we'd be doing better. Braving the elements, proving our wit, defeating some judgmental monster. Just what does any of this have to do with me saving the world!?" Seth sighed, unable to answer his own queries, and put his coat back on for lack of anything else to do with it. Next he had to shake out his pants, but in such mercilessly frigid weather he decided it would be better to be uncomfortable than totally frozen. Now he walked across the newly moved desert sands, searching for his traveling companion once more in the ageless sands of the desert.

Meanwhile Jack had barely stirred form his resting spot. Where he was he could not discern, for his eyes were too heavy to open. He could not move, though he felt like he could. There was some mystical force pressing down on him, forbidding him from moving a single inch. He felt a presence, one he didn't think could be felt, a physical perception of his own weight. He felt **gravity** all around him, much more clearly than he ever could before.

"Ahhhh, man..." a jaded and gravelly man's voice groaned with a placid disgust. "You guys are here for _thaaaat?_ That sucks, man...I kind of wanted to keep it, you know, **for the power....**" Such boredom in such serious matters. If Jack could only see the owner of this low, bored voice he could try to measure him up. Unfortunately, all he could feel was the sea of pressure that surrounded him, a cosmic density that he could not shake.

* * *

Seth continued through the unforgiving desert, feeling the sand all in his tight trousers and ignoring it with the hardest mettle of his mental capabilities. He tried to shake the sand out from distant occasion to occasion but found the whole practice to be endlessly futile. It was in there for good if he didn't bother to actually drop trou and shake them out. However, in this cold, he couldn't give it a second thought. He would endure with the lightning Gem tight in hand, his mind probing itself on how to activate it.

"Let's see" Seth thought out loud. "Fire is a righteous passion, a driving justice that symbolizes with a burning flame. Lightning is something instant and powerful. What feelings can equate to something like that, so instant and moving, or maybe devastating...Perhaps love? But how can I spontaneously invoke love? That's a more passionate feeling than I think I know. Perhaps any love will do, such as my love for justice..." Seth stopped to hang his head in shame and sigh with regretful defeat. "I should have asked Jack to trade..."

The sands began to stir out of turn. Seth looked around, sensing countless presences, and drew out his blade. He held it over his shoulder, left-hand dominant, and readies himself in his indescribably uncomfortable pants for an assault. He felt something below him, around him, and above him, like all the evil forces of the world had formed a spherical vice that came imploding inward to crush him. He had an increasingly bad feeling about his current position.

Without any hesitation or indulgence to surprise him, faded skeletons began emerging from the desert sands. Zombies risen by some arcane force with weapons ages old clutched tightly in hand suddenly rose up and groaned out dust in Seth's direction. Seth did know but he stood atop a cursed graveyard that migrated with the rolling dunes, the remains of an ancient battlefield that came back to life each fated night every year. This was that night, this once in a lifetime window of opportunity where history repeated itself perfectly. The souls of these warriors were as faded photographs imprinted in their minds. They could only reenact what they had already done, echo what had already been said. Such pitiful existences, all for nothing, and Seth didn't know.

"Pericles!" one of the zombies, wearing a tattered white beard on his lipless, blue face, called in contempt across the short distance of desert sands. "Your rebellion has gone on more than long enough! I shall end this squabble once and for all!" With that the apparent leader against this Pericles unsheathed his regal sword, chipped and worn by the ages of weathering, and held it tightly in arm.

"Very well, old man" the apparent Pericles, wearing what was once the most elegant armor of his age that now barely covered his upper torso, replied. "I will show you and all of Ozymandia who the rightful king is! Our ancestors shall be proud of me!"

"What's going on here!?" Seth demanded of the zombies. More and more kept coming up from the shadowy white sand, all of them the same yet different. Behind the old man defying Pericles stood an army of tall and wide skeletons, all the top soldiers of their time far back in history, all wielding short swords and wide shields, most of which had been reduced to only the straps that had once made them shields. Behind the youthful and defiant Pericles stood an army of the remains of men and women alike, rebels without a cause or training. His army came to outnumber the elites of his rival a good ten to one, but skill was still a factor.

"Have at you, rebel!!!" The elder general declared. His warriors began their roaring rush across the dunes with swords and spears and other broken, ancient weapon remains in hand. Their skull faces all resounded with the rage of ages that had never truly passed. Seth watched from just outside the battlefield as Pericles ordered his own troops into battle.

"Defeat them!" Pericles ordered, forcing his militia forward with determined battle-cries. "Bring me Pathos' head on a shield!" Pathos, that was the elder's name. Seth lowered his guard for a moment and watched the whole strangeness unfold, unaware of its true purpose in time or space. His mind drifted far and away, back in time to when this scene made sense. Ozymandia. He heard of it before...

* * *

It was long before anything else, before any modern, fledgling civilization. When the world was created an ideal race was raised in seclusion from the rest of the races, a perfect group of people all under the design of one eponymous king, Ozymandias. He was a god taken to human form to guide his creations, to teach them and make them supreme. If they were successful then these creatures, these humans, would surely be able to fight against the prophesied terror that would one day invade the peaceful blue sphere Earth. All these perfect specimens resided in his city, Ozymandia, a place built within the deep crater that had been even before the gods who made the world arrived. It had simply always been...

Ozymandias, in his human form, concentrated all his time as a mortal into teaching his creations all about the world and how to make it work. He taught them astronomy, math, language and literature, engineering, technology, building, working, and most importantly he taught them war. He made the first civilization of men and women not an ideal one of perfect peace. Not one of ultimate unity, where all worked for the greater good of each other, but where competition ruled life. One would only be kind to get ahead somehow, otherwise cruelty was the most common trait among the determined working class. So many people all in one city, it was inevitable. War was bound long before Aku came to teach humanity what loss truly felt like.

The first war was provoked between an old and learned man, Pathos, and a young upstart soldier, Pericles. Pathos preached tradition of an ordered army of only the best and strongest men and women. Pericles wanted perfectly equal treatment between all of the humans, a balance in the world where everyone had a place to fight. Fighting became the only topic that the greater intellectual forces of the city ever seemed to encounter. No amount of learned debate could disrupt the infinite importance of the place that fighting held. As Aku's time approached it was their number one priority.

"I beseech you" Pericles honorably began in front of the most esteemed comity in the city. "Give my legion a chance. We may not be strong or agile compared to Pathos' warriors, but we have skills they do not. Infiltration, espionage, subterfuge."

"But what do those mean?" an elder asked. Pericles was a revolutionary genius of strategy at this time in pre-history. When the only thoughts of war existed only in terms of pure honor, mettle against mettle, man against man, such evil plans of manipulation and circuitous routing were deemed as unknown and strange. "What would the benefit be of attack an enemy when he isn't looking? Where would the fight be? Where is the honor?"

"I agree" an older, rougher man said. "There is no honor in such acts. We must stand and fight as we have all been taught by the greater forces."

"Against a force like Aku" Pericles began "that has been described as the ultimate evil, honor may cease to exist in war. The war we will fight will be for the very survival of not only our race and out planet but of the gods who made it! Ozymandias himself, before he died and left us for paradise, said that not even the gods on high will be able to stop Aku in time. Only we can prevent his coming, lest the prophesies take a darker turn. Therefore, in the face of such great evil, it should only make sense to fight on the same level instead of trying to defy the gods and drag such a monster down."

"Hold you tongue" Pathos demanded. Obviously he was the most flustered and angry of them all. "You know not of what you speak! Down to our level? You make it seem as though these dishonorable acts of malcontent are to be praised and held in such a high regard!"

"Aku won't allow us an opportunity to gain an advantage!" Pericles exclaimed. "He won't fight with honor, no matter what we do! Why should we give him the upper hand just because we're afraid to try a new possible solution!?"

"Stand down, Pericles!" Pathos ordered. His words had obviously hit a biting nerve on the veteran's shoulder. He felt more than compelled to combat his theories but felt the need to throw them into the dirt and stomp on them to assert his point to the fullest. "You talk of this prophesied monster like you've already met him. Have you had any visions that you've selfishly withheld from your superiors until just now? Have the very gods themselves spoken unto you about this fiend to come? What do you know of our future enemy? Do you truly know how he will fight or if he will fight at all!?"

"Pathos" a weak-voiced old man began, "calm yourself. You cannot question the words of the gods. They created us, and this city, and taught us all we know of fighting and war. We must always believe the gods."

"But what of our fellow man" Pathos began "who speaks so freely of deceit and dark strategies? If his true wish is to lie and cheat his way to victory, how can we believe him as he stands before us today?" That remark bit greatly. Pericles had his own honor and pride shattered and left there on the floor for the elders to stare and spit at. He left a humbled man, a defeated man, a soldier with a broken weapon to the comfort of his family and neighbors who he had defended so proudly. They watched him walk in his heavy sulk all the way back to his home and surrounded him with their compassionate warmth. Still, he felt weak and alone.

"Why" he began, clutching his head painfully, "why can't they see? A pride in battle is one thing, but a pride in unity...**the more together we are the stronger we are! Separatism is what defeats great armies!**" Pericles threw himself up and stormed out into he streets where all the citizen-soldiers had gathered. "We will march upon them and show them that our force, the force of unity, can defeat all!" His cry was replied with the roars of soldiers ready for battle. These formerly innocent merchants and butchers, ordinary citizens filled with the rage and drive to go to war for the pride of their gods, was the force that would topple the mightiest of the trained elite...or would it?

Just as Seth had adjusted to watching history play before him, he was pulled back by a shocking force that grabbed at his back and thrown head-first into reality where the armies clashed.

* * *

"Gravity is really a powerful force" the deep, gravely voice said. "Did you know that gravity can **bend time?** It's true. Space is made up of curvatures along its dimensions all caused by gravity currents aimed away and toward a universal nexus point...it's all a huge headache to understand, but whatever helps, helps. Anyway, I understand that at a certain degree of manipulation gravity can bend not only objects but things like time and memories." The desert dunes shifted erratically for a moment, as if invisible hands of the cosmos were shaping them like clay on a table.

"You see" the gravely voice continued, now with more of a prose-like importance, "that's why I chose to guard this power. It's dangerous and extremely useful. In the wrong hands it can bring disaster. In the right hands it can bring destruction. The only difference between the two is those words, right and wrong, and guess what? A the right pressure, even **those words can be bent by gravity. That's why it's mine. Not yours. Mine..."**

That demonic voice trailed off in Seth's mind and echoed closely in Jack's ears. The next demon wasn't as nice as Ramuh or as honorable as Ifrit. It was a true-to-its-title demon...with the power of gravity...


	16. Episode 16

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XVI. Jack and the Gravity Demon

* * *

The merciless howls of undead fury echoed through the airy desert fields of sand. The gravity well of time that bent the very fabric of temporal reality hung high overhead as a pulsing, rippling darkness that seemed to expand infinitely while at the same time collapsing in on itself. No one could see this strange phenomenon except those who stood directly under the marvelous blackness, those who were affected directly by the bending of time, all brought on by a bored and greedy demon somewhere else in the desert's rolling sands.

"Maaan..." the demon droned on in its low, uncaring voice. "I hope this one's as good as the last one..." Still, though Jack could hear the demon's apathetic voice, he could not move himself to see it. He could, by the demon's grace and amusement, speak freely.

"Stop!" Jack demanded. "You toy with the lives of brave warriors! Cease this sorcery and free their souls!"

".......Nah" the demon flatly declined. "There's not much point to you trying to talk me out of this, pal. I like watching them fight each other. Every time the outcome is different...but the same."

"You toy with their mortality" Jack shouted. "You will pay for abusing the honorable souls of fallen warriors!"

"You just don't get it, do you?" the demon asked. "I'm not resurrecting them and forcing them to fight. This is history repeating itself. Once in a great while, however, time and space get so bent off of gravity that the course of events can change. It's basic temporal physics, pal. You're a wannabe time-traveler. You've gotta know this stuff."

"So" Jack groaned from the strain on his chest, "this power has the ability to send me into the past?" The demon, out of Jacks vision, taunted the samurai by tossing the covetous dark Gem that swirled with a deep violet smoke in and out of its pointy-fingered palm.

"Yup" the demon said. "If you can use it that well, then you can go back in time." Jack's resolve multiplied. His force grew stronger against the crushing well of pure pressure and force. He pushed up against the constant pressure from above and began to move himself, increment by increment, until his chest was in the air and his hands were stretched as far as the borders of his invisible shackles would allow. The demon looked back and waved its black hand. The gravity increased and Jack was pressed so hard that his bones began to creak.

"UUUUURRRGGHH!!!!" Jack shouted in pain. He soon gave in to the pressure and passed out. Now with his muscles offering no resistance to defend his internal parts, the demon relieved the pressure so his body wasn't completely squashed. Now Jack was out and lay limp on the stone table he had been placed on. The demon hovered over to look down upon him through glowing violet eyes.

Here it stood, all black with starry specs of distant, shifting constellations across its skin, wearing a mantle of the deepest violet and the most regal blue over its shoulders. Less of a demon and more of a thin, walking shadow this beast with pitiless eyes and a disappointed frown perpetually carved into its deep-space colored face cast its tired gaze down upon the samurai and extended its long, angular arm with and open palm and tight fingers. He rose Jack up onto his feet and kept him there in a gravitational stasis, a deep black bubble surrounding his pure white form. The Gem that held such drastic power was held in the demon's other hand as it generated the limitless power to manipulate space. It turned its perfectly round head and hovered away, its long cape and upper mantle billowing in its weightlessness, and he stopped before a large, flat rock to observe the events of the war long since passed.

"I wonder" he said playfully "who's going to win this time...?" The zombies continued their war out in the desert, unknowingly playing the collection of toys and fools to the evil being's whim. Pericles and Pathos fought each other with glorious clashing of their ancient, decrepit weapons and flourishing movements of their undead limbs. The desert sands swayed to and fro at the demon's whim, following the gentle wavy movements he made with his long and pointy fingers. "That's right...fight just a while longer..." At his command space bent once more and the damage incurred by those that had fallen was undone. Soldiers stood back up, the weapons of the milita who had killed them flying out and back into the peasants hands. Leagues of more corpses rose up to fight again in an endless, insufferable replay of their ultimate victory and defeat.

In the back of Jack's mind there was a sudden spark of intellect. He saw a vision of a rampaging monster tearing down entire hillsides and incinerating forests with but a roar. It was a beastly god of flames with burnt-brown skin and a mane of beautiful fire. The face of a lion, long black horns of a devil, hooves of a mighty horse and arms of a man, a man with the power to lift the mountains themselves, all clad in golden rings and mantles and charms pierced through its pointed ears. This creature roared a flaming and powerful bolt of inspiration through Jack and woke him up with a fiery resolve. The spirit of fire, of the great demon Ifrit, was within him, and now had saved him from the torment of the demon. Jack furrowed his brow in pain to the gravity around him, causing the demon to look back through his deep-purple eyes and curiously examine Jack.

"........Nah, he's out cold" the demon assessed. Jack worked even now to silently and stealthily gather the energy needed to free himself. All the fire of his righteous resolve would be channeled into his hands, and with that he would execute his brilliant escape...

* * *

While Jack got off easy by being a demon's personal play thing, Seth was caught in the middle of histories crudest war. There was no strategy or civility in their actions, only death and murder and one-sided clashes of power. A single soldier would stab through the head of a woman and then kill the young men and women who came to assist her. One small young boy would take a knife to the throat of a soldier form behind and those on his side would rush up to finish the warrior with a stern beating to death. It was barbaric beyond the term, beyond the times of elegant war and the seductive art of death.

"This is insane!" Seth exclaimed as he ran through the battlefield. A soldier, seeing him not as one of his own, launched an attack with his broken sword. Though it was no threat to him, Seth still defended himself and sliced the soldier neatly through the stomach with his long sword. Now that it was out, he may as well keep using it. Seeing another legion of growling, howling zombies rush at him, Seth posed with his sword at his shoulder, pointed tip forward, and dashed in to counter them. One slash blew them all away and as they tumbled Seth came down and stabbed them all in their vitals, killing them swiftly.

"You should live a few more lives" Seth proclaimed "before facing the might of my blade..." Seth turned sharply to see a larger group of poorly-armed peasants charging at him. Apparently he was on no one's side this time and had to fend for himself the whole unfortunate while. He still had to do it, like it or not, so he made a leap into the crowd and made blindingly quick slices down upon all their heads. Death rained from his quick wrist and steady hand as the zombies collapsed, their skulls split in two and dust coughing out from their ancient craniums. Seth landed softly in the sand, keeping his sword pointed backwards in his hand while he stared onward past the horizon. The world seemed to be bent at an odd angle. The view was captivating.

"**AHA!**" Shouted a brutish voice. Seth turned around with a snap and jumped out of the way. He flew past the edges of the battlefield, marked by the thinnest wall of bodies, and felt himself drift slowly in the opposite direction that he had angled himself at. A gravitational field to keep them in and others out was preventing him from outright escaping. The man who had attacked him was a particularly husky corpse of a soldier wielding a tree with a massive sharpened rock driven through it. A crude warax, but an effective one none the less. "To your knees, pathetic sentry! Pay homage to the great **Gladicus**!" The man swung down, straight down, and missed his mark. As his ax settled and ceased sinking into the sand Seth landed upon its tip with his sword gently drawn his his hand. His silver hair blew in the desert wind like a wave of arcane mist and his green eyes resonated with a charming, devilish disposition.

"I'm sorry" Seth said, taking his sword up again, "but I don't intend to bow down to anyone tonight. If anything, you should show my sword its proper respect..." Seth dashed up along the trunk of the tree with his sword drawn back at his side. Once at the base of the tree he jumped up and made an attack that sent him flying beyond his mark. He landed safely but Gladicus' head was toppled from his shoulders.

"Ow!" the beastly man roared. Seth looked back in astonishment, a cold and disbelieving kind of astonishment, to watch Gladicus simply shake off the blow and step on his own head to turn around and face Seth once more...headless. He spoke now from some unknown source that seemed to emanate from the ancient, dusty hole in his neck. "That was a good move, little one! Still, a sword as small and thing as that can't possibly hurt me! It looks more like a toothpick than a proper blade! **AHAHAHAHA!!!**" The mockery was on trespass that Seth wouldn't ignore. He took his sword to his side, drawing it near its sheathe with both hands rested upon the blade, and prepared for his calming trance into his Iai style. He closed his eyes and silenced the world of war around him.

Gladicus charged, tree-ax overhead and ready to smash down. Seth listened to the desert sands as they whispered their wisdom to him. Instead of the calming voice of his master or of himself to guide his sword through a destined path, he heard a distant and mad cackling laughter that sounded oddly aviary.

"A stroke of genius" the elderly voice said madly "is like a bolt of lightning. It can strike at any time but it never strikes the same place twice! HOO-HOO-HHOOOOO!!!"

"Ramuh!?" Seth grunted. His stance was broken, his mantra dissolved! He was unprepared to face the startling strength of the behemoth about to crush him and nearly went into a futile retreat. Then it all rang clear. At the last second he retrieved the Gem of lightning and aimed it upwards. He had felt revelation! A brilliance like never before! A resounding presence of intellect! He had activated the Gem with the provocative and fleeting feeling of pure, unbound **GENIUS!!!** "Thunder!!!" A bolt of lightning, certainly not from the sky, fell through the tree and into the Gem, coursing harmlessly as a shield of green static electricity around Seth and dissipating into the sand and the air.

Now that Gladicus was no more, Seth carefully examined the Gem in his hand, looking over its beautiful internal workings as the smoke swirled and the lightning streaks glowed. "Now that makes sense" Seth said. "A practice of wisdom for a Gem requiring massive mental discipline. I guess I need to start hitting the books if I want to make better use of this thing." He tossed it up and caught in, then stowed it safely in his pocket. He turned now to the battle nearly over already, more than most of the zombies either dying in battle or sinking into the sands of time once more. Upon a mountainous dune Pericles and Pathos fought to the death, still almost perfectly matched, still waiting for their history to repeat...

* * *

"Aw, what?" the demon groaned and then sighed in exasperation. He watched as the intruder, Seth, made a mockery of his already insulting practice by cleaving apart zombie after zombie, making his way steadily to the mountainous summit where Pericles and Pathos fought their harrowing final battle. It was a close duel, made all the more close by the threatening intrusion of a long sword into their cadavers. "Man that sucks...I'm gonna have to go deal with that guy." The demon vanished in a winkling cloud of liquid blackness that expanded and imploded into nothingness instantly. Now with no visual restrains to tie down his actions, Jack expanded the flame of his heart and gathered mighty spheres of pure, molten red fire in each hand.

"Grrrr!" he strained, clutching the orbs hard. The Gem he kept within his robe, pressed against his chest, began burning him with its magical flames licking at the inside of his very chest. It was painful to hold such strength within him anymore. The fire was demanding release. With a roar and a belch of flames Jack released his righteous fury from either side and blasted the walls of the cave down to smoking, smoldering rubble. His gravity field was broken, as well as most of the cave's support structure now that the main walls had been turned to holes, and he landed on his hands and knees to catch his lost breath. "Hhhha!" His breathing was heavy but steady and interspersed with coughs from his heat-coated throat. The cave began shaking even more now as its integrity collapsed under Jack's magical might.

"This is not good" Jack uttered. He made his way over to the flat panel of stone and watched the battle for himself. "I must somehow warn Seth as to the demon's approach...but I do not even know where I am..." Jack thought about his predicament for a moment, then reached a markedly obvious conclusion. He took the Gem from within his robe and leaped away from a falling boulder. He looked up as the rocks rained down and dodged them all to the sides. There was nothing but airy pockets within the rocks that extended up above, a fragile and naturally unstable formation of dried up aquifers. Jack knew, at least partially, where he was and how to escape. Taking the Gem in his left hand and aiming it at the ground, Jack began gathering the magical energies in a fire around his armed hand. Then, taking his sword from its sheathe into his right grip, he aimed it straight up...

"Die, heathen!" Pathos shouted. He lurched forward with a tremendous blow that Pericles blocked. A history book would say that he lost his arm to a debilitating bone shatter as a result, but tonight he simply let the sword slide down from his shield and retaliated with a sharp smash to Pathos' hole of a nose with the still solid butt of his sword. Now the general zombie was fallen and clutched its broken nose in pain.

"It ends now" Pericles shouted. He rose his broken sword up high, ready to strike down with its shattered metal, and swung deep and hard into the sand. Pathos rolled down the dune, unable to honorably submit to his defeat but in the end losing the true war against the bright and rebellious young commander. In saving his life he lost his honor, his will to live, his fighting spirit, and he slammed the sandy ground with his fist.

"Dammit" he said, fighting sobs instead of soldiers. Seth came spinning in beside him, heads rolling after him as he had sliced them so promptly off. Seth glanced to his side, spun away and set his sword down from his shoulder to the beaten general's throat.

"Another one" Seth began "reunites with the dust." Just as his sword was raised overhead, ready for the finishing blow, a wave overcame him. A huge blast of pressure that intensified the air around him with a resonating, rapidly pounding amount of force. Weight overcame him, and all the fragile corpses that lay scattered around the desert sands. His sword smashed into the sand, simply impacting at first and then sinking afterwards, its weight and density so great that Seth couldn't hold it up. Even his face was dragged down in a frowning groan of pain as he was pressed further and further into the sand by way of the intense gravity from the blackness overhead. The demon rose up from a hole in the sand with its arms crossed and its pointed legs straight down. Its regal, huge cape was billowing in the night horizon as the dark-faced demon cast its lethargic yet stern and pressing gaze down upon the suffering swordsman.

"Damn you" the demon said in a whisper. "It was just getting to the good part, too. This time Pericles might have won. That's rare, man! I was having fun...who are you, anyway?" Seth shut his eyes, easy under the immense pressure, and pulled from his heart a passing, forgettable feeling of brilliance he had once had. A stroke of pure genius and the excitement that came with it. A sudden blast of lightning roared from him and hit the demon, blowing it away and canceling its field around him. The sand exploded in liberation as Seth regained himself and the ability to stand uninhibited by strange gravity. The demon hit the ground once, then limply floated above the ground while slowly getting back into proper position.

"I" Seth began under heavy panting "am Seth the swordsman...what are you?"

"That's mean, kid" the demon said uncaringly. "I didn't ask 'what' you were. You clearly knew... But out of fairness I _will_ tell you who I am. I am the demon guardian of the Gem of Gravity, **Demi DelIxriuss**. I control the flow of all matter in the universe with this power. I can move stars, blacken the sun, collapse a planet...or maybe just a heart." Demi reached out and opened a black bubble in the air in front of Seth. Seth tried to move away from it but the bubble refused to relocate itself. The bubble instead attached itself to Seth's gravitational pull and started orbiting him.

"What is this!?" Seth demanded. "What kind of power is this?" Demi crossed his arms and looked away.

"Even if I bothered explaining to you" Demi said "it wouldn't do you any good. You're just a slow-ass hum-"

"**RAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!**" Up from the ground exploded Jack, with his blade in front and a roaring trail of fire behind him. From the deep-down cavern where Demi had long-since resided Jack exploded up into the air and near the pulsing, black sun. Demi and Seth followed his ascent as he roared into the dark, secluded night sky, until finally the heavy silence was broken and lifted by gravity-controlling Demi as he pointed up and turned to Seth.

"Look. He's awake."


	17. Episode 17

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

With a flick of his wrist, Jack turned around and set himself jetting down toward the ground. His sword was still wrapped in the swirling flames that his heart billowed forth as he raced through the night sky at Demi who stood plainly by, his apathetic purple eyes observing in perfect silence, his pointy fingers slowly tapping on his immaterial skin. At the final moment, just before the explosive impact of Jack's sword, Demi dodged with a calm lean to the side and at the same time send a shaking pulse of sheer gravitational push at Jack. He was hit and went barreling away from the blow, but with the jet of fire from his hand he was able to recover just as he reached the outer-most border of the battleground. Demi closed his eyes and sighed.

"So it's like that...is it?"

* * *

XVII. Jack and Seth vs. Gravity Demon Demi

* * *

"Jack!" Seth called. He raced over as well, keeping the demon in his sights, and drew out his blade upon nearing his ally. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I am" Jack said breathing heavily. "The fire took great strength for me to use, but now I am here and I am ready to take what is needed from the demon's grip."

"Glad to hear it" Seth said. "I know his ability. It's gravity. He has total control over gravity."

"I know as well" Jack said. "He explained to me that his powers are capable of bending both space and time, hence the battlefield of already fallen warriors that you witnessed, a battle that was long ago fought that should never have been fought again."

"Are you two talking over there?" Demi shouted. "What's the point of talking in the middle of the desert? Are you stupid?" Jack and Seth set their glares straight ahead, aiming at the pitch blackness that stood away from them, watching with unpleasant eyes and a flat, bored mouth.

"I shall take the right side" Jack said.

"I'll flank left" Seth added. They were both off to a running start, the strange black orb still orbiting around Seth's chest. Demi honed in on Jack first and turned to his right where Jack was charging. The warrior's sword alone did not hold a threat to Demi's ethereal body, but the enchantments that made it so valuable allowed it the power to cut through anything with evil in its heart. Unable to predict such a thing, Demi allowed himself to be cut and immediately reacted in defense with an explosive shield that propelled Jack away and into the air.

"He hit me..." Demi said, looking down. His form was marred, a tattered and billowing cut on his side. He ran his hand over it and healed it slowly. "I didn't know he could hit me. That's a shocker...well, I'm not surprised at all but..."

"HYAAAHH!!!" Seth roared. Demi only looked to his side at Seth. He didn't retaliate. He didn't need too. The black orb became much more lucid and pulled itself away from Demi at Seth's back. A strong gravitational force pulled Seth away, just as he was within reach of the demon. He swung anyway and the metal missed Demi's face by but a hair's breadth.

"I didn't feel anything" Demi chided. "You aren't trying hard enough, obviously." Seth looked at the orb as it slowed its orbit and came in closer to him when it went near Demi's direction. Seth pieced together what he could but was stopped form completing a whole, single thought as Demi took a leap towards him to repel the orbiting orb away. Seth was forced to follow it and tumbled across the sand while the orb dragged him away from Demi.

"It's an orbit" Seth said as he recovered. "No...it's magnetic."

"Basically" Demi said. "You'd be surprised just how much gravity plays into magnetism. The ploar attraction between two objects causes a pull, or in this case push, caused by electrically charged particles trying to come together or stay apart. In that essence gravity is created. This entire planet plays off of magnetic frequencies to stay in orbit and allow other things to orbit it. That being said, by placing a polar-opposite object with a greater density than you to orbit around you, **I can control our distance just by being near you. Magnetic repulsion will prevent you from getting too close.**" Seth understood it all at once, and with that flash of genius he held out his Gem and pointed it at Demi with a combative grin. Demi looked up and was struck by lightning! In the blinding flash Seth averted his eyes, only to realize the orbiting ball was dragging him away as Demi walked towards him even more.

"You didn't hear me, did you?" Demi asked. Seth looked up through his squinting eyes and saw Demi holding the lighting in his palm, **a squiggling electric line that led from just above his black palm up to the arcane hole in the air where it spawned.** "Magnetism. Electricity. Gravity. Did you not understand what all of those had to do with each other?" Seth was held back in fear. Demi raised its hand up, holding the crackling, unstable spear of lightning, pushing it further up toward its own source, while Seth could barely move under the strain that the orbiting magnet held him. He was fast to the ground, unable to dodge away, but he still held the Gem. Demi tossed the lightning down with a limp, apathetic wrist. Seth brought his Gem up and intercepted the lightning! It spiraled around the Gem, caught in a mystical whirlpool of energy, and was absorbed into Seth's body as pure fighting spirit.

However, unable to move, that energy dissipated and gave a fierce shock to his system! He was in great pain, screaming with arcs of electricity jumping between the rows of his teeth, until Jack stepped in to save him from behind. Demi was too slow in his turn and received a deep slash to his shoulder as Jack made a rolling somersault over the demon with his sword out. Jack landed, posed with his sword swung out to his side, and sheathed it. Seth absorbed the last of the electricity and dropped his arm down as Jack retrieved him and carried him over a dune with a dash.

Demi, for once, looked serious.

* * *

"My blade seems to be effective against him" Jack said, holding up his sword. "We must launch an attack again so that I can outflank his waves of gravity and deliver a blow to strike him down and retrieve the Gem he holds."

"There's a problem there" Seth said, gathering himself up from the painful shocks he had just endured. "I can't get near him. This black orb orbiting me acts as a gravitational magnet that repels away from Demi. The closer I get the stronger the force to push me away."

"But you have you Gem" Jack noted. Seth shook his head.

"He can catch the lightning" Seth explained "and throw it back to me."

"Did you try to ground yourself?" Jack asked.

"On what ground?" Seth asked. Suddenly they were both swept up in a hovering field. A translucent bubble had captured them and forced them into the air while Demi, appearing at the top of the dune, held it there with his hand.

"This is getting dull" Demi groaned. "If you're not gonna fight me, at least call a time-out or something. Don't just leave me hanging." Jack and Seth struggled to break free of the field but to no avail. The forces of gravity were too immaterial to fight against, even for Jack's mystical sword. Demi raised them up a bit higher and made them stay in said spot while he aimed his palm up at hiss huge, distorting black field and drew the energies that bent time and space back into his enigmatic hand. The desert ceased shifting and the dunes all flattened out into a plain. The sands were calm now, aside from the liquid ripples that emanated from the demon's feet.

"Let's take this down" Demi began "to a more...**earthly level.**" He took his hand, still shaking with a gathering and departing blackness, and aimed down. All at once the mute blast of dark energy exploded from his fingertips and shot down to the solid ground far, far below the desert sands. An entire city had been exposed now, with corpses and skeletons frozen in time with haunting poses that pleaded mercy from the highest heaven. All the sand left, repelling itself away from the black beam that Demi shot out. A huge wall of sand, moving ever incrementally away from the pulsing black pillar, formed around the borders of the city that was built down into the ground like a crater. Once the city was properly excavated enough, Demi aimed his palm at his captives and gently ordered them down to the ground. In their anti-gravity prison the only rush they felt was the mental panic upon seeing the ground rush at them while they physically felt nothing at all.

"That's enough fun" Demi said, snapping his fingers. The bubble stopped on the ground and then popped, leaving Jack and Seth unbound by Demi's hold and grounded by solid, natural earth once more. The flat stone tiles of the golden-colored street they stood in reflected the moonlight in a pale yellow. The brick and mortar of the surrounding houses resonated with a venerable, ancient quality that had been left untouched and unscathed by the ages and ages that had passed. The black pillar of energy departed while Demi quickly descended down. The sand stayed at bay for now, all Demi's own power, but who knows how far his mercy would stretch to allow the sands to stay so strangely solid in the air.

"What is this place?" Jack asked.

"Ozymandia" Seth said, awing about at the fantastic architecture, all perfectly preserved. Jack was more suspicious than anything.

"I suppose this is yet another trick of yours, Demi" Jack blared, turning to point at the all-dark demon. "You continue to bend time around us, don't you?"

"Nope" Demi denied apathetically. "This isn't me, although I kinda wish it was. This is the most perfect city even constructed, Ozymandia, built before the time of man by men before their own time. Planned by the gods, stones dragged across dirt and mud by man, the first true city ever made on this planet by an intelligent race. They went missing after a tragic war...and blah blah blagh. I don't really care. I do like watching them fight, though."

"Monster!" Seth growled. "Those men were the best warriors ever to exist! They're names were passed down through human intelligence by the gods to give them honor and homage! Periclese, Pathos, Brunhilda, Odin, Bathur, Beowulf, Jason, Alexander, all of history's greatest names were inherent from these people! The first true race!"

"Yup" Demi confirmed with as much excitement as he bothered with. He lazily rolled his head from one shoulder to another, letting his neck stay limp as it wanted, then crossed his arms and sighed off to the side. "They were an interesting bunch. At least when I was around they were."

"When you were around?" Jack asked. "How old are you, demon?"

"Old enough" Demi said, turning back to them both "to know when I've got my work cut out for me." He threw his arms out and pushed off his mantle and cape. Now it was just a thin, black figure with the speckled spots of starry patterns shifting about in his black body. " You want my power? **Take it.**" He held up the Gem in his pointed, claw-like fingers then slid it down into his palm and gripped it hard. His eyes went from flat and apathetic to furrowed, angled and stern. The air around him bent violently as he hovered over the ground, bending reality around him with the magnetic force of space itself. Jack and Seth, undaunted by his shift into seriousness, readied their blades and prepared to charge!

* * *

"Fire!" Jack roared. With the blazing red Gem equipped in his hand he thrust it forward in a punch and shot out a ball of radiant fire. The magic was stopped in front of Demi and spun around with extreme, dangerous speed.

"Nothing will work" Demi said in his patronizing voice. "It's all just ammo for _me_." He turned to his side and waved the ball away. It shot out like a laser at Jack. Jack's sword intercepted the blow and deflected the beam in fragments of light that spread all over and scorched the ground. Seth, meanwhile, made a wide circle to the side and prepared an attack with his lightning Gem, Demi looked forward and simply moved at him. The orb around Seth squeezed itself in against his chest, physically pushing him away as it drove itself away from Demi through his own body.

"You should remember" Demi said "what'll happen if you try to attack me..." Seth still stood his ground. He slid back as Demi approached, the magnetic force too great for the orb to withstand, and he persevered until the final moment when he knew he would be crushed. He spun on the toe of his boot and let the orb fly off his chest and away from Demi. In the instant he was in position, a genius tactic, he let out a shocking burst of electricity aimed straight at Demi's face. The demon was unable to clock it, squinted in pain, and was temporarily vulnerable. Jack was already closed in and turned Demi around with a kick as Seth flew into a house on the upper block, elevated some ten meters off the base of ground he just stood on.

"Die, demon!" Jack shouted. He made quick and efficient swipes of his sword at Demi's chest and abdomen region, marking the demon's body with several deep, glowing-red cuts before the gravity energy returned and Demi blew him away with an explosive push that broke the stone tiles he stood on. Jack went spinning through the air and recovered with a swift burst of energy from his fire Gem. Demi clutched his chest and abdomen, trying to bend his mystical skin to repair the damage, but the scars were permanent. They occurred outside his own bending of space. He would just have to endure letting his inner light leak out.

"That kinda hurt" he blandly said, his eyes angling even deeper in passively-displayed anger. He extended a palm and began gathering darkness in Jack's direction. The samurai fled and jumped up the ten meters to the elevated terrain to hide away in one of the square houses. Demi shot out a beam that ripped through space itself and shattered a house. The debris floated around for a moment, and when the beam parted and the black-and-purple static lightning off pure gravitation energy ceased flickering the greater chunks and blocks of stone imploded and fell to the ground, all the weight and nearly none of the mass. If Jack was there, he couldn't be seen, as all of his mass was condensed to the size of a spec of dust in an instant.

"I'm back!" Seth shouted from behind. He had taken higher ground and was gathering up a storm of electric energy in his palm. Demi fled to the center of the massive crater-city central platform and began gathering his own energy, swirling black nebulas, into both his hands. Once Seth had his energy fully charged he aimed his Gem along the length his his sword and announced his attack. "**Tundaga!!!**" The crackling energy ripped through the air, three mighty spears of lightning spiraling around each other. Demi caught the attack with a flash of light as he brought his hands together and led the lightning into his nothingess. When the attack was over and Seth was left panting he stabbed his sword into the ground and got ready to block the lightning Demi would be sure to throw back. The lightning, and all the light that came with it, were totally gone.

"You're not too stupid" Demi admitted. "But I'm still miles ahead of you. I didn't catch that lightning. I just led it into a **black hole.**" Seth was startled now. The gravitational force of a black hole was known to suck in anything and everything, including light. Lightning, which was mostly energy, was no match for such immense force. However, Seth's observations on astral science prevented him from the closer changes to his form. **The orbiting orb was gone,** a piece of Demi's power that was needed to keep up his gravity shield and wield the power of a black hole at the same time.

"HYAAAAAH!!!!" roraed Jack from behind. Demi turned with a start as Jack's blade cut through the air and popped Demi's gravity shield like a bubble. The demon stumbled back, waving his arms to keep his balance, while Jack sprang forward with a mighty stab. The sword went through the demon, tip to handle, and then out the side in a slash that sent Jack's body spinning in the air. Once he landed and spun himself to a stop he straightened up and sheathed his sword as Demi lay on the ground, defeated and torn.

"Fine!" Demi shouted in exasperation. He grabbed the Gem and tossed it up in the air. "I don't want it anymore!" The Gem, out of either man's reach, just fell back down and landed on Demi's head where it stayed perfectly balanced between his flat, sarcastic eyes. "Uggghhh...If I'd've known someone would want to kill me for that thing I never would have stolen it..."

"Stolen?" Jack asked. "Then, you are _not_ the guardian of this Gem?"

"Hey" Demi said, limply pointing his finger at Jack. "How'd you escape my gravity well beam?"

"I knew you would attack me like that" Jack said "so, when I was out of sight, I simply jumped up to the level above. Even though I escaped, it seems that I was not fast enough to avoid the force you projected, and my sandals were sucked off of my feet and into the void."

"Heh" Demi laughed. "At least I got something outta that...damn, though. I thought this job would be easy. Guarding the Black Gem was too much of a hassle, all codes and restrictions, but the Gravity Gem was already taken by this air-headed fairy. I figured no one would want it if they found out what you need to use it, so I took it for myself and practiced with it." Seth joined the chatting as well, panting and holding his knees for support over the immense amount of energy he had used in his last attack.

"What do you need...to control the gravity...?" Seth asked.

"A black-hole heart" Demi answered. "You need to be **evil** to use it." Jack and Seth shared a worried glance. They feared, even in their victory, nothing good would come of it. To become evil over such an incredible power undoubtedly would lead them down a terrible path.

* * *

Jack and Seth stepped out of the desert sands and into the low-grazed grasses of the long, rolling plains that connected to the fertile mountains north of the desert. Demi saw them off with his cape and mantle billowing and a flat, stoic gaze in his eyes.

"You'll meet a guy named Gilgamesh eventually" Demi shouted as they left. "Give his ass a good kicking for me." Jack and Seth waved the demon away, their course newly set for the highlands some far distance from where they currently journeyed. Jack knew the way, as always, and Seth was glad to accompany him. Demi, now alone once more, turned to the desert sands and sighed. "It's gonna be a long eternity before anyone else decides to take this thing..." In his grip, tethered by a small strap, was the deep-purple Gem of gravity that had ceased working since he abandoned it. The lonely demon stowed the Gem away and began walking into the desert.

"I wonder what else I can find here...?" he wondered and began wandering the endless sands in search of something fantastic...


	18. Episode 18

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XVIII: Aku's Chosen Candidate Bounty Hunter

* * *

The dust cleared and the result had culminated: The Lion of Gothica, by the combined might of both Vendetta and the nameless Soldier, was defeated and his armor shattered. From within that golden shell came a weakened old man with dead eyes. The great force of righteous battle was dead, and now the two truest warriors stood alone against each other in a floating abyss of rock and dust. The soldier in his battle armor standing opposite the time-skipped Temptress from he earliest years of expert combat, a young woman of 18.

"So" she said, holding steady and straight her mighty scythe blade carved and woven with gilded iron patterns all along the blunt of its edge, "it's come down to this. A queen of conquest and a lowly pawn. I wonder, oh I wonder, just who will make it through?" Her sarcasm was dauntingly blunt. The Soldier tapped his huge weapon with a single arm against his shoulder impatiently. Aku stood towering over the battle, his billowing blackness forming a ring around the ruins of the Colosseum and taking in the body of the Lion with its clawing arms. He observed down to the very hearts of the warriors. They were perfect, devoid of mercy or empathy for the enemy, hearts of true sideless mercenaries.

Vendetta spun her scythe around and ran forward with a razor-sharp ring at her side. The Soldier brought his thick sword in both hands and swung up from the ground to deflect her shot. She still reeled forward and made a swift upward kick at his jaw. The Soldier jerked his head to the side, planted his feet and made a spinning horizontal slice. His sword was swung in a full circular arc and stepped back. She caught her scythe and made another downward slice, then followed it with consecutive attacks from multiple angles and sides. The Soldier stabbed his sword into the ground and hid behind it as the metal crashed and slammed against it all at once.

"What? He blocked them all?" Her curiosity was interrupted as the Soldier jumped out from behind his sword, then jumped back in front of it and launched a powerful punch at her face. She leaned far back to dodge it while he landed back on his feet, spreading them out far, and then leaned into a kick that connected to her side. She stumbled to the side and tried to hook him with her blade but he flipped over the attack, grabbed the handle of his sword and swung it down to smash the ground in front of his feet. He kept the sword dragging and slicing through the ground to create a crescent fissure that circle around him. Vendetta spun her scythe around and stopped it so the dull of the blade was placed carefully at the ground. The Soldier made a powerful upward strike from the ground that formed another arc of dust in the air as his sword drifted straight up. The fissure he sliced continued to rip through the ground, **a blade wave aimed straight at Vendetta!**

"Damn!" Vendetta cursed. "He can use attacks like that!" She pushed her scythe into the ground and received the sharp wave of power only to have it clash constantly against her scythe and push her back even as she planted her feet to the ground. The jagged, pulsing wave of energy didn't stop. Vendetta sliced the wave off to the side where it coursed into the fiery border of Aku and dissipated.

"Hmm?" Aku grunted. "What was that?" He looked down as the Soldier came in swinging his massive sword with a single arm, spinning with it and stabbing with flying leaps while Vendetta stylishly spun her scythe around to block and make attacks that he easily rolled and jumped away from. "Oh. Oh it was that." He gave a tired sigh and looked up to the sky that rolled with blood-red clouds and black industrial smoke. "When shall this battle be over, I wonder? Maybe it was a bad idea for _all_ of the strongest to gather so quickly at once..." His hindsight was only amplified by the tremendous attack that rebounded off his invulnerable skin. He glanced down and leaned over to block out the already weak light as the Soldier spun and flipped back to plant his feet on the solid ground once more.

"So it's like that, is it?" Vendetta said, twirling her scythe again. She kept spinning it around faster and faster as it circled her slender, seductive body and formed a barrier of slicing energy and blurred quick metal. "Come at me now! However you wish, and suffer the eons that it took me to master this technique! **Thousand-Year Hurricane!!!**" Her attacks, the cuts she made in the air, started flying out in random directions moments after they were made. The Soldier weaved through the air, dancing on his toes to avoid the attacks. He slashed them away when he could and threw some back at her, only to have them intercepted by other blades she made.

"Hmm..." Aku hummed, stroking his beard of fire. "An interesting technique, but I do not like how easy it is to dodge. The cursed sword that the Samurai carries weighs nothing compared to that soldier's massive sword, and he moves too swiftly in his simple, ugly little robes. A technique like that would at best delay him until he found a way around it." Not hearing any of the dark lord's musings, the Soldier found a break in the pattern long enough to break the attack. He drew his blade up over his head and made a heavy slash down that broke the air and formed a glowing stroke of orange in the air. He made two more strokes to form another side and a bottom, an open box, and then two instant swipes to form an X shape in that box. The attack, all five strokes, shined brightly and blasted forward.

Vendetta was thrown through the air and received the majority of her random time-delayed bladewaves to her back. She coughed and grunted in their rhythm and fell flat down after the last one hit her. The Soldier simply stood, blade perched across his shoulders, looking down through the opaque visor of his helmet. Vendetta coughed up spit, then blood from the severity of her own attack, and then let out a dreadful groan that leaked out her magical black mist and surrounded her body. Time was being altered once more. What form was left for her to take, and what would it do to face the obviously stronger young Soldier in purple? Aku leaned down further and held his breath in anticipation...

* * *

The black mist began coagulating around the newly standing form of the time witch Vendetta. A new form had been dragged through the time and space of Vendetta's powers to face down this formidable Soldier. This time, rather than a woman who resonated with mature allure and seduction, an old and wrinkled woman with eyes sagged shut and hair white as a ghost stood with a cane sporting a fully circled crescent blade that closed on itself with the pattern of a dragon eating its own tail. Old mother time, standing in robes that seemed to portray history in a pastel of colors and running figures fighting each other and holding amazing treasures, the ultimate time mage.

"UGH-**CHAAAK!!!**" she coughed loudly. It was so sudden and sickly sounding that even Aku reeled back from it. She cleared her throat with a grim gurgle and hack. "Ugh. Those useless girls, screwing up my timeline. This is why I always hold of appearing for myself until the very end!" She turned her gaze to Aku, directly above, as he gave her his version of a polite smile and wave. "You're still here!? Well, I guess I've been sent back quite a ways..." Aku straightened up and curiously frowned at her note. She then looked down at the Soldier who set his blade in his hands, aiming in her direction. "Ugh. Young people. I never liked fighting them!" She rose her staff up and slammed it down. A violent ripple shot through time and the Soldier next found himself tumbling through the air with a terrible blunt pain at his gut.

"No matter how young you are" she began "you can't keep up with me, and I'm an old lady!" This insult added to the Soldier's minor injury as he grabbed the ground with a sturdy hand and spun himself back onto his feet, staying his balance with a swift swing of his sword. The old Vendetta went from one place to another instantaneously and swung her staff to hit the Soldier right on his helmet. He was jarred and fell down to his knees. Once there Vendetta once again manipulated time, stopping it and moving behind him, so that the next sensation he felt was the fear of her sharp circular hook around his neck and her thin, thick-veined arms ready to pull back in a swift, decapitating motion.

"This is why I hate fighting you young people" she said. "It gets old. It's too quick. You can't manage to keep up with my own time and you get left behind as a corpse! It's never any fun. That's why I stopped fighting at my old age and removed myself from the time continuum. I never wanted to fight again, but my younger self was always hungry for more mayhem and men and other disgusting, unreasonable things. I'm an old woman, the world had no real use for me anymore. Why else would I master an art like this? It took me so long to do..." The lament in her voice forced a knee-jerk reaction where she turned her beret sadness into a rage for the present and tensed up on the noose she held around his neck. The Soldier straightened up his neck as best he could and crossed his arms in an X over his chest, fists balled against his shoulders.

"Anyway" the old woman began, "now that I have a purpose again I've decided to undertake this new job and see if I can't make a lasting change on what seems to be an unchangeable future."

"Is that so?" Aku said, snaking his way down behind her. "So you wish to preserve my presence in this world by hunting down the Samurai and seeing that he does not complete his mission, eh?"

"Eh?" she said, cupping her ear to hear better. "No, no, no. Neither of you get much talk around where I live. I just naturally assumed, at some point, you both got vanquished, or whatever, and I stopped paying attention. As far as I know you're both dead." Aku was stricken with another little surge of unease at her passive observations on the distant future. "No, I just want to know, if I find a new purpose in the present, will it justify my past?" The Soldier became demure, she realized, and aware of her own situation and the gravity that it held over his. He wanted to make quick money, she wanted to give meaning to her very life. He could not easily justify his next action. He threw both hands forward and opened his palms. A shower of runes within magical, glowing orbs shot out and began circling around him.

"Eh!?" old Vendetta shouted. The magic was so strong and resonated with such power that even Aku fled away as a giant winged bat to observe safely from the sky.

"What sorcery is _this!?_" Aku declared. All at once a bright light emerged from the ground. The old lady went to chop away the head of the Soldier, but her action was in vain. All she sliced and carried through the air was the remnant of his body as a mystic mist, sparkling with starry specs. She staggered around as the ground was sundered and pushed up from beneath her. A massive beast came out from under the ground.

It had huge plates of dull armor hung by chains from its higher areas hanging over its humanoid arms and a cloak of metallic scales wrapped around its waist that extended down to cover its **dragonoid legs.** Its chest was bare and open, a fleshy color against the tightly woven scales of blue that was its body. From its back to enormous wings spread out and forced a harsh breeze to kick up from the ground and circle its massive frame. From the rock where Vendetta seemed to float upwards she could see it reeling its red-glowing eyes up to meet her. Its face was demonic, a beaked snout and a row of jagged steel-blue teeth. **Four tiny, glaring eyes shone out with their gathered brightness as beams **which illuminated its terrible frame.

"I know this creature!" old lady Vendetta exclaimed, fully opening her beady eyes. "This is the ancient dragon guardian of the World Sphere, this is **BAHAMUT!!!**" Such a creature gripped its clawed fists and flexed its huge muscles as it gave a world-shaking roar. The deafening bellow was so powerful that even Aku was blown away. Vendetta stayed in place, static in space and time while her hair blew like wisps of stringy cotton attached to her head. She squinted her already tightly squinting eyes at the beast and stared it down.

"So it comes to this" she said, clapping hr hands together. The metal dragon of her scythe blade spiraled out of control and erupted off, forming above her head as a halo. "**Oroborus Entity: A Curse at the face of Time!!!**" He incantation took effect immediately, reversing her age and fluttering the colors of her robes away in streams that made a glowing aura all around her. Now at her most beautiful, with hair pure and white as snow and a halo over her head, she resembled an angel against the glowing backdrop of heaven while a monstrous dragon of shining metallic frills and spikes circled around with its own tail in its golden-plated mouth. In every voice she ever used she spoke and her symphony sent sonic chills through the air with each audible syllable she uttered.

"I will remove you from time itself!" she declared. "You blasphemous thing! You arrogant youth!" From atop Bahamut's growling head the soldier reappeared, his sword sheathed behind him, a purple Gem in his fist that shone out streaks of light. He aimed the Gem forward and his giant comrade took heed to his command, snapping its jaw and lurching toward the artificial source of sunlight. Oroborus, the giant bronze dragon that circled endlessly in the sea of light, spiraled forward with its tail out of its mouth and made a bite as Bahamut went in for a slash!

The cosmic forces clashed and caused a great divide in the sky! The very atmosphere was torn asunder under their immense power! As both dragons clashed epically the living bodies of both the heavenly, timeless Vendetta and the battle-ready Soldier clashed with a flare of metal and violence!!!

* * *

After all the light and noise was over, and the atmosphere hole was repaired with but a sweep of Aku's hand, the winner was declared.

"Well now, this is an unprecedented oddity I have on my hands" he said, stroking his beard of fire. On the ground there was a smoking crater and the frozen ashen silhouette of Vendetta standing in horror against the dusty air and then there was the Soldier, **alive and well with heavy breathing and his sword sheathed again.** His Gem had lost all of its shimmer, the energy within it worn out entirely, but hidden in his hand there was another Gem, one of sky-clue that collapsed eternally into a black center. Staring into the amazing relic would have the feeling of flying through a never-ending tunnel. Aku saw only the Soldier's standing frame and paid no mind to the Gems he clutched. He shrank down to a more approachable form and hovered over to congratulate the Soldier who snapped his head and stood at attention to his approach.

"Well done!" Aku congratulated. "Even against an impossible opponent you have won. You are the ultimate victor against the most powerful cosmic forces from out of time and even my own influence! You have triumphed over the utterly impossible! Truly, truly you are worthy to face down my greatest foe the Samurai Jack and end his terror against me!" The Soldier still stood shock-still, breathing through his nose in his filtered helmet, and gave him his full upright attention. Aku just grinned while his eyebrows flickered as flames, his discomforting but unintentional smile bearing his curved fangs and emphasizing his wide eyes.

"Uhhh..." Aku droned, unable to come up with anything to say. He couldn't see past the Soldier's helm but he was sure that the discomfort hadn't reached him yet. He was sure his eyes were still staring straight forward, waiting for him to say blink so that he could. Aku shifted his eyes to and fro, nervously looking for something to say to further his own purpose as a mediator. All the dead and dying bodies around him finally started sinking in. All the greatest bounty hunters in the world were dead. This man was among the few that survived, and not only that but he was the only on to truly win against a truly impossible enemy, a sorceress who could control time itself. Aku formed his arm and hand and gently extended it out, leaning out to extend his reach another inch or so.

"Put her there!" Aku said. He continued staring at the Soldier, who stayed statuesque, and then grinned as his hand was slowly shaken by the grateful warrior. "Tell me, powerful warrior, what is your name so that the whole world, the entire universe might know their savior?" The Soldier took a tired finger to his helmet and clicked on a button to make the internal sounds of his helmet audible outside. His breathing was amplified as organized static until he finally caught his breath and announced himself properly with a beaten, graveled and youthful voice.

"**Claude...Striker...**" he said.

"Ha!" Aku laughed. "Claude Striker!!! A fine name for the universe's most formidable and fierce warrior! Everywhere you go, there will be people to cheer your name, people to gladly cater to your every whim and fancy." Aku slithered his shadowy form over and wrapped a friendly arm around Claude's shoulders, making a slow sweep with his other hand at the sky. "All that is mine in the universe shall benefit you. There is only one thing you must accomplish for such status to remain permanent."

"Yes" Claude said. "I must kill...**Samurai Jack."**

"Yes" Aku answered flatly. "Kill him." His reply was so unenthusiastic from the many times he had said it before that he couldn't help but feel embarrassed for himself for not emphasizing the point as much as he wanted to. Therefore, he grew to immense heights and pointed down with one pointed, angled finger down at the Soldier who still stood as still as he pleased. "**KILL THE SAMURAI FOOOOLL!!!! BUEHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!"** Vendetta's time-frozen ashes dissolved into nothingness as she was removed, body and soul, from time once more. The Soldier had won Aku's black heart, and now had a new mission to embark upon.

Jack had made a new, terrible foe in that stoic soldier, one who would alter his fate for the rest of his days...


	19. Episode 19

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XIX: Jack, Seth and the Scotsman

* * *

Ore the rolling hill-land grasses they walked. Jack and Seth, samurai supreme and his swordsman apprentice, journeying in tandem with the Gems of two defeated Demons shared between them, the magical instruments that could defy nature. One red Gem of fire and one misty green Gem of lightning. The two men trekked onward, through the rolling plains and the shallow forests and across the swaying bridges of rotted rope and wood that hung over the pits of protective swamp beasts that guarded the slushy moors.

Finally their goal was in sight. After cresting one final hill the great gray castle of the clan, of the Scotsman, was in sight! Jack grinned with a comfortable feeling of nostalgia and breathed deeply of the crisp, natural air all around. Seth came up behind him, exhausted as usual, and sat down on the top of the hill.

"Why are we here again?" Seth asked. Jack pointed across the short plain to the castle.

"A great friend of mine lives there" Jack explained. "He would not be one to deny going on an adventure, nor would he be remiss to helping me in my own quest against Aku. I am positive that, if we are honest about our intentions to him, he will no doubt assist us in gathering the Gems we seek."

"Terrific" Seth said. He reserved himself back to his breathing and stood up to gaze out upon the scenery with Jack. "I'm willing ti trust anyone you're allied with."

"Let us go then" Jack said, taking off his hat and stowing it inside his robes. Seth wondered at that move before following, thinking what kind of strange modern clan had a prohibition on the wearing of hats. The walk across the calm and rolling grassy plain seemed even longer than the long and arduous journey to get to it. Jack observed each detail with a grin as they passed it. The thrashed and torn wooden practice dummies and the boulders used to crush them, the row upon row of throwing spears all centered perfectly around a certain straw-bodied target, the newly hung flag made from the leather of a powerful beast from some unknown land that marked a certain clansman's territory; all warm reminders that he was somewhere safe. A place with people who could accept him for his personal convictions against an entire universal order.

After so long, he realized just how much he missed this home away from home. Seth, on the other hand, kept his eyes skyward and watched the clouds move.

"It may rain later" Seth observed. Jack turned to him curiously, wonder why he wasn't better appreciating the scenery around him. Seth looked down with quite a stern face. "It'll be a _heavy rain_, I think." Jack blinked at him. Then, with a serious face, he nodded twice. An unspoken code between them had passed. Seth's intuition was flaring off like a mighty bonfire, giving him some insight to a future danger that neared him as quickly as he neared it. Jack also seemed to understand that arcane pricking, as he felt it too. Certain doom, as always, approached from no general direction.

But the warmth of a fire soon cast that shadow of dread and doubt from their minds. Jack entered the clan hall from the main gate and was welcomed warmly by its guards. Seth followed behind him, making sure to toe whatever line Jack was walking so he didn't step out of place accidentally. Seth kept himself in the most cautious respect that he could, careful not to make inappropriate eye contact with anyone he passed.

Jack, on the other hand, was the recipient to the cheers and greetings of men from all over the stoney hall. Men wearing full plate armor with the helmet cover drawn to guzzle their flagons, men who wore entire outfits harvested from the pelts of their strongest kills, men who wore the druid robes and elken skull caps that wove intricate stories around the blazing fires; Jack's presence struck no man as unimportant and had an unequal effect on everyone who saw him. Those that toasted to his return, those that cried into their heavy muscles. This was truly a good place for him to be.

"Go get the big boss!" a man shouted to another behind him. "He'll wanna see the cat that just drug itself in!" The man behind him, one whose body was hidden behind his mighty beard, muscled a thick arm out from the bushy brown and gave a gold-toothed grin as he sped off, showing his equally hairy back in his flee. He ran up flight after flight of stairs, never tiring, until he reached the height of the spiraling tower staircase and knocked on the door. He knocked until a much louder stomping came from the other side and the door was thrown open inward. The terrifyingly strong shadow of a powerful man towered over the furry man that intruded upon him, still smiling his yellowish smile.

"Some guy in robes is here" he announced. The tall shadow cocked his eyebrows and leaned down.

"What's his name?" he demanded.

"I dunno" the furry man admitted. "Isn't it Jack?" The tall shadow's eyes shot wide open and he stood straight up, flattening his brow.

"Take me to him" he said in the most Scottish drawl ever produced. Jack was downstairs, waiting patiently in the middle of the foyer with Seth at his side, answer to his best the questions that bombarded him from all sides. Requests for the tales of his adventures, for the make of his sissy little pajamas for some men's wives, for the make of his brilliantly famous sword, but no questions for Seth. He was being purposefully ignored, it seemed, so attention was not further drawn to him as an outsider. A heavy metal clang sounded out over the crowd.

"Show me the one called Samurai Jack!!!" the voice of the tall shadow demanded as he began his stomping downstairs. One foot stomped down hard while the other metal one clashed against the stone steps. He finally stood before Jack, who looked up to match his own determined and stern gaze, an old friend with fiery orange hair tied back in a tail behind his head. Bags in his eyes, contrasted in liveliness by the bagpipe that rested across his back and the powerful claymore sword sheathed opposite the pipe. Finally the Scotsman smiled his ragged smile and pressed his fists against his hips.

"**BWAHAHAHAHAAA!!!**" His laughter shook the rafters. "You're _still_ wearing that laudry get-up? You look like a woman!!!"

"Hahaha!" Jack politely laughed. "It is good to see you too, my friend." They resorted to patting each other on the shoulder, neither one flinching despite the thunderous slams they made against each other. Seth just stood back and examined the Scotsman with a smile. At least now they had the raw physical manpower they had been since missing.

* * *

A great feast had been called by the head man, Jack's timeless friend the Scotsman. Seth continued to remain as anonymous as possible, sitting silently and politely by Jack's side. Of course he was quickly shoved away by the rambunctious and burly clansmen who demanded even more questions out of Jack.

"Quiet down!" the Scotsman demanded at the head of the long table. The company didn't quiet down as per his order. Instead their noise seemed to increase in joviality. The Scotsman saw the futility in trying to reason with his own men and resorted instead to retrieve his bagpipes from his back and take in a deep breath. Jack saw the danger coming ahead of time and grinned as he brought his hands up slowly.

"What's wrong, Jack?" Seth asked. His sense of danger didn't pick anything up until it was too late, and all his senses were drowned out by the blaring bag-piping of the Scotsman's instrument. Jack was happily covering his ears. Once the noise had died down and all the warriors were left temporarily deaf the Scotsman lifted his lips from the horn and stowed his bagpipe back on his back.

"Alright" he began, "you all know our brother Jack." Everyone nodded. Seth was so terribly shocked that he was shaking. "And so, you know he wouldn't just stop by all whilly-nilly like a dandy on a walk to gander at our garden and eat up our food. He's got a reason for being here, or he's not here at all!"

"Greedy bastard!" a man shouted. Jack stood up and graciously turned the attention to himself.

"It is true" Jack admitted. "I am on a quest to find a collection of sacred, magical Gems that hold the power to manipulate the forces of nature. So far I have collected the Gems of both fire and lightning, gaining command of those respective forces." Jack drew out the Gem of fire and kicked up a building spark that towered into a controlled flame in his hand. The warriors moved away, all but the Scotsman, and drew their weapons. The Scotsman just passively observed, squinting at the bright flames. Seth regained himself and stood up, bearing the second Gem that crackled with electricity.

"We are seeking a certain Gem" Seth continued, holding his power in his fist. "One that bears an ultimate unholy power, a Black Gem capable of harnessing the power to destroy the universe so that we may defeat Aku."

"How's that gonna defeat Aku?" the Scotsman asked. "If anything it's just gonna make him stronger!"

"We already own the polar opposite to the Black Gem's power" Jack said, stopping his power and stowing his Gem again inside his robes. "The problem lies within its use. Already we have learned that to harness the power of the Gems one must be in tune with with a specific emotion or feeling. Neither of us, mysteriously, carry the necessary feeling or personality to wield the White Gem, which holds the power to wipe Aku from existence entirely." The gathering awed at such a power, hoping to see it as well.

"I'm assuming you ain't got it on ya" the Scotsman said.

"No" Jack said "we do not. It is safe."

"If it ain't here" the Scotsman blared "then it ain't really safe, is it!?" Jack and Seth blinked, but Seth recovered to move first.

"I've gone to extreme lengths" Seth said "in order to ensure the White Gem is kept under the safest possible guard. Even if it were found it is untouchable to anyone aside from Jack and myself." The Scotsman, instead of delivering a speedy and heated rebuttal, looked curiously over at Seth and started walking over to him. He measured him up and down, front to back, and stroked his short beard as Seth circled to keep him in front.

"Who are you, girly-hair?" the Scotsman asked. Seth reeled in embarrassment over the term, which brought much delight to the clansmen and invoked up a loud and raucous laughter. "Look at it!" the Scotsman exclaimed. "It's so long and waaavy! What kinda cleaning tools do you use in it, eh? Lots o' lavender and cream? **BWAHAHAHAHAAA!!!**"

"Do not take him too seriously, Seth" Jack said as he moved in closer to him. Seth looked up with a smirk. He obviously had a rebuttal at hand, but Jack was less than willing to see him go through with it. Knowing the explosive reaches of his friends temper he felt that he should stop any assumed rivalry or, even more dreadful, combat that may transpire. Seth, however, didn't pick up on his silent concern and went ahead, spinning himself around to face the Scotsman with a face full of certainty and pride and two mighty fists balled up and poised arrogantly on his hips.

"At least my hair will smell nice" Seth began. "You stink like a thousand overflowing manure fields." The Scotsman stopped laughing and cast his gaze down. The rest of the clan stopped laughing and looked to their brother.

"True" the Scotsman admitted. "It is the smell of adventure and questing, the mighty manly stink of-"

"Cows" Seth interrupted.

"Wha..." the Scotsman stuttered.

"What kind of adventurer" Seth began "spends all his time in the cow fields, collecting the ages of stink that come with them? Jeez. It's not like the cows are taking you on mystical journey throughout the world. Don't over sell yourself, dirty farmer!" The Scotsman was fuming and holding back his neutral rage, trying to reform it into something better, more verbal and powerful.

"Prissy head!" the Scotsman bellowed. Seth leaned in and kept his cool demeanor.

"Cow-herder!"

"Sissy-boy!"

"Pete-Breath!"

"Soggy-headed little lamprey of a wiggly-armed woman!!!"

"...Sod-eater!" That last one left an odd impact that Jack couldn't quite grip. Still, the Scotsman reeled in a way he hadn't seen before and mulled his choices over. He nodded and started up a low belly-jiggling chuckle. The clan, including Jack, looked to Seth in admiration as a cheerful mood was once again restored. No sooner had the Scotsman been ready to deliver a hearty toast to his newest honorary brother than did a terrible stomping, an ominous pounding, start echoing down from the tower staircase. The Scotsman looked up in fear while Jack's eyes shifted to and fro curiously. Seth kept a hand near his blade, just in case something less than desirable were to come from above.

The rafters were shaking to the step and sound of that heavy, ominous, encroaching stomping from above, and the Scotsman finally moved forward, over the table and under the elevated precipice where above the stairs to the tower led, and waited with an anxious, somewhat sullen face.

"What is wrong?" Jack asked from close behind.

"Stay back, laddies" the Scotsman said, pushing Jack and Seth away with the gesture of his wide arm. "There be no man but me to stand up to this force coming down upon us. I'll shield ye with me own body if need be, but I can't do you much more besides that...not from, _her._"

"Her?" Jack asked. "As in, your-"

* * *

A sudden blast of sound as the doors were thrown so harshly open. The womanly bonny bride of the Scotsman, a thick woman in an elegant girdle and Gaelic dress with her red hair all up in a frazzled bun, came stomping over to the railing with her nails digging through the fine finish of the wooden craft.

"**WHAT'S ALL THIS NOISE ABOUT DOWN HERE!?!?!?!?**" she boisterously demanded. Her voice echoed with a powerful resonance all throughout the hall and pierced the gentle ears of the gentlemen gathered all about. The berserkers and mighty plate-clad warriors all stood with their ears tightly clamped and their suits of armor completely sealed off as the presence of the Scotsman's bonny bride tended to end never well for their ears.

"Honey bundle" the Scotsman gently began, "we were just having a bit o' fun, is all. You know how the boys get, right? Besides, Jack's here, and we wanted to-"

"Jack?" she said, placing her hands upon her wide hips. "Well if that isn't a bundle of buckwheat biscuits. Where is the never-callin-no-not-stoppin-by" she took in a breath to skeptically wave her hands about beside her head and finish up "Mr. Samurai?" The Scotsman moved aside with a short drag of his leg and revealed Jack who stood behind him.

"Sorry, laddy" the Scotsman whispered. "I lied about shielding you."

"Well hello there!" she shouted form on high. "What've you come for this time, pajama-boy?"

"Well" Jack shyly began, knowing even he couldn't easily stand up to her. Seth stepped forward with his arms crossed and swiftly demanded from her without a hint of fear in his brave, brave voice.

"We've come to take your husband on our quest" he said. She placed her fists back to her hips once more and looked down with a cocked brow. "We aim to rid the world of Aku forever by seeking out one who can wield the ultimate holy power against him. In doing that, we aim to gather a collection of immensely powerful Gems that may lead us to such a person with such a personality." She just looked down at him with a piteous look and leaned against the weak, creaking railing with her mighty arm.

"What're they talkin about now, love?" she asked her husband.

"Darlin" he began, in a sincere, doting way, "it's Jack! Samurai Jack, of course. He's never had a plan not buzzing in his head. It's just the same wishes and blarney stones to us for him. Only, these Gems they're talking of, they've shown us that they're real deals, no hoaxes from these two, you know that."

"Well I know Jack" she said, "but the skinny, long-headed on I don't. Can we trust him all that much too?"

"If Jack trusts him" the Scotsman defended "and I approve of him, then what've we got to lose?"

"A home!" she shouted with a pound that cracked the wooden railing. She started storming away while her husband made a quick pace for the stairs to go after her.

"Yer both welcome here as long as you like" he said, "but if things aren't smooth between the two of us by morn, I won't be going nowhere with ya!"

"I understand" Jack said politely. "Please, do what you can." With that the Scotsman was off, pleading and calling and cooing for his honey-bunch, bonny lass of the moors.

"Jack" Seth said, "you know some very strange people."

"Why yes" Jack said, looking straight at Seth, "I tend to gravitate towards such people who would be so insane as to outright oppose the hand of Aku. It is simply fate that everyone I meet tends to have some oddity about them...I would be uncomfortable around normal people, anyway."

"Well that's good" Seth said, looking around as the men started resurfacing with grins of vigor and health. "From the looks of it we're a long ways away from 'normal people'. This is the lions den of weird..." And thus Jack and Seth found a safe shelter for one night. No loner were they camped under the starry skies or by an exposed brook or within a heavily patrolled Aku territory. Tonight they slept within the manly, odoriferous mixture of friendly company, all of whom would gladly raise a sword on Jack or Seth's behalf.

Despite the stench, they were both very calm and comfortable.


	20. Episode 20

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XX. The Scotsman versus the Goblins

* * *

The morning was cool and the moors were foggy. A wet and wild mist rolled in from the surrounding highlands and covered the grassy hills in a damp, gray sea. The hall now was an island atop a perch of dirt in the middle of that sea, a lone bastion and testament to the mighty men who stayed within. From that rolling mist a windless, curious swirling occurred in places that seemed to draw ever closer to the shores of the warrior beach. The white swirls continued to encroach all the way up to the crest of the hill where the mist spilled over in waves that silently hit against the dirt.

From that frothy cover stepped out a body, a living thing, a humanoid shape squat and wide with a sword in one hand and a shield over its back. Its red eyes were shining out of the visor of its helmet. The waves of mist continued to silently roll and crash, each one guiding another of these beings to the shore in front of the hall...

Inside the hall there was a jubilant awakening of men. The first up were sure to be as silent as they pleased to gather their things and get themselves fully awake. Jack and Seth were among those first up and began a quiet chatting with the other men after them over warm cups of thick, gravy-like herbal mixtures and sides of steaming meat. They talked of their recent travels, the tale of their meeting, the quest that lay ahead of them and the demon's they have faced. So many questions led were raised by the other men, most of them concerning their near-loss in their most recent fight against the evil Devi.

"What I wanna know" a rough man with a long and thick beard began, "is why didn't ya take from him what you deserved?"

"In our hands" Jack said "such a power would be useless. Neither of us have the ability to awaken such a magic through the emotion of evil."

"If we could" Seth said "it would certainly raise doubts about each other. The last thing we need is trust issues in such a quest."

"Are you not suggesting" another tall, buff and incredulously voiced man began "that no human is of absolute purity? And that evil does not reside within either of you at all?"

"Certainly not" Seth said. "All men have to have a balance of that, but the evil that would be needed would surely work against the natural good that both Jack and I tend to emit."

"I agree" Jack said. "It would be troublesome to say the least if either of us had any sort of morality issues arise from acting too much upon our inner evils. I have once tangle with such forces, my own darkness, and it nearly consumed me."

"Nearly" the man continued "but here you sit, as gentle a man as I've ever met. Calm and collected, not a single thought of malice in you not already fostered against your justified foes, a just and good man. I don't doubt that Gem could have served you in some sense, miniscule as it may have been..."

"Regardless" Seth said, sweeping a hand through his hair, "just the thought of it would have slowed us down. We're better off limiting our magic to fire and lightning for now."

"Even so!" a loud and slender man with a metal cap shouted, "Holding that kind of power in your hand! It must be amazing! I can't begin to speculate such power, wielded in the hands of mortal men! It's so fantastic! Romantic even!!!"

"Indeed!" another loud man called. The table roared with the spoken thoughts and excitement of men discussing their use of such power. Obviously it was a hot topic among the adventurous types that gathered around. Men who could only wield the second-best, a simulated, technology driven alternative to natures finest powers. Flamethrowers and electric-energy guns could only pale to the raw and refined simplicity of blasting an infinite amount of fire or lightning at a group of enemies.

"Think what people could do with that" an older, much more jaded man said prospectively. "Once Aku is defeated, Jack, you should invest these Gems of yours to powering machines! A singe one of those marvelous things could easily power a city and feed the masses perpetually!"

"Perhaps" Jack said, examining his docile, dormant red Gem. "The only thing required to activate them is emotion. For fire, it is a righteousness. For lightning, a spark of genius."

"An epiphany feeling" Seth said. "The feeling that you've got it all figure out, like you know everything in the world, just that single spark of intellect." Seth looked up and was met with a myriad of clueless faces. Obviously these weren't the kind of men who would do much of that kind of thinking, much less understand what it was to accomplish such a thought. As the men riled and stirred downstairs, picking up their brilliant conversations of battles fought and won and war they walked through to reach a beaten and battered promised reward, the Scotsman was upstairs with his wife, still talking her down from her rage of the previous night.

"You know me, bonny" he said, asserting himself as much as he could while still speaking softly to his wife. "I'm not gonna stand by and let this kind of chance just pass me over. You wouldn't do it either, if you had a sword at your side."

"Who says I don't?" she said, pulling up a slender rapier. "You may go tonight but tomorrow, where would I be? Alone in a tower, the last place where I'd want to be with my husband gone exploring the world! And if I'm not here, who's to leave these rambunctious little hooligans from wrecking and wreaking havoc on my home?"

"They're better than all that" the Scotsman said, defending his friends and clansmen. "You know them, mostly. Moss and Betty will clean whatever mess they make and then some more if they aren't already sore. Just promise them some ale and mutton and they'll fall in line!"

"You're trying ti trick me" she said "into going with you, aren't ya?"

"Only if you want to" the Scotsman said. She turned and stood up to face him, her arms crossed and her face waiting for an explanation. "It'd be a great chance to see the world a bit better. You always complain about being in here all the time, you know. Why not come with me and Jack and his prissy little friend and get a good look at the world?" She gave this a thought, a very stern and silent, judging thought, but even in her deep analysis she couldn't reach a definite answer. She just shook her head and shrugged. Before she could voice her uncertainty, however, a metal clang hit her window. From the ground to the highest tower, a grappling hook of metal. Both husband and wife took up their arms in preparation for the inevitable assault.

"Some excitement" she said "is closer to home."

"A bit too close for me" the Scotsman admitted as a hand clawed its way into the window. A green-skinned, stout warrior with three swords on his back and one in his hand climbed over and landed on the ground, full scrappy metal armor and leather hide on his skin, glaring them both down with his round red eyes and wide, flashy grin.

* * *

The hall doors sounded with a loud and powerful thud. A force from outside was pounding heavily to get the large, wooden doors to open. The chattering stopped all at once on the first pounding. The men stood up and walked to the door, weapons in their hands. A line of soldiers was quickly formed. The men with longer distance, those wielding throwing spears and bows and some with guns, took to the second floor and some even to the high-vaulted rafters. Jack and Seth took opposite sides of the front-most line in preparation for whatever naïve force was about to charge in.

"This doesn't bode well" a tall adventurous man said.

"Let them come!" a loud voice called. A large man with wide shoulders and a wider gut, wearing on his chest a long and dirt ridden beard where some short leafy sticks were jutting out, slammed to the ground his heavy and huge battle ax to center the attention onto himself. He was a militant, brutish barbarian of a man with wide, white eyes and a huge grin covered partially by his dirty, unwashed facial hair. "I will take them on myself if I must! This hall cannot fall to any invading forces!!!"

"Well said" another man called. Jack stepped out and pulled out his Gem of fire. He concentrated quickly and gathered up a swirling wind of flames around his fist. He sheathed his sword with his other hand and stepped back, keeping the flames tight to his hand, the heat just barely licking at his skin. He looked like he was about to throw a tightly-wound punch.

"Please" Jack said calmly, "allow me to cast the first attack. It has been too long since I was here. I feel that I must contribute a fair source of strength to this fight as a clansman."

"Fair enough" a man said. "Let Jack give the first blow."

"Daaaaaw!" the brutish bearded man whined. He hung his head and pouted his lip out. "I wanted to be the first into battle..." his childish whining was further exaggerated by the tears he forced out of his grimy, crusty eyes. Seth was a bit moved in disgust. The flames continued to intensify around Jack's fist, pouring from the air around the Gem, brilliant red and orange mixing together. The door still blasted out the loud thuds from the other side and began to buckle. The wooden board that bolted the doors from inside was bending at each pound the forces outside made.

All was tense and quiet. The warriors steadied their breath in preparation for the coming enemies. Then, with an explosive force, the doors were blown open and a horde of green-skinned Goblins and Orcs rushed in! Jack didn't hesitate. He didn't even view his enemies justly. With a blind and righteous fury he kicked up his powerful, destructive flame and stepped into a mighty punch. A bright-red blast of snaking streams of fire shot out and blew the entire first wave away, singing and burning the sleeve of his robe. Once all the heat and smoke cleared Jack dropped the Gem and fell to his knees.

"Jack!" Seth shouted. He quickly moved to his friend and looked at his hand. It was shaking and burning bright red. The Gem had, apparently, overheated.

"I was too rash" Jack admitted. "I burned myself with my own emotions."

"Take a leg" Seth said, taking the Gem in his leather grip and stowing it in a protective, heat-resistant pouch. "I'll head this out." Jack nodded, picked himself up and retreated to the back ranks. He quickly wrapped his hand in a bandage and drew his blade in his left hand. He could still fight, he was just tired. Seth took his blade, widened the distance of his feet, dipped his knees down and posed his long saber over his shoulder, left hand dominant. A cool morning wind drifted in and moved his long, silken silver hair. The next wave advanced. Stout, chattering, armored Goblins with swords, axes and all kinds of clubs were the infantry. Taller, stone-skinned Orcs wearing less but heavier armor charged in after them, some of them wearing huge shoulder pads that smaller Goblins stood on with bows and arrows.

"Let's go!" Seth shouted.

"**RAAAAAAAAAGHH!!!!!!"** the clan roared. The warriors went charging ahead. The marksmen up above shot arrows and bullets down, combating the Goblin forces that threatened with their own range. The numbers clashed violently. Swords met, axes cut and clubs smashed. Seth sliced down the three Goblins in front of him and leaped over them, right into the thick of the horde, and began his elegant blade dancing. He slashed in wide cutting arcs all around, sweeping slashes and curving cuts that reached on all his sides. His front was well defended and gave him the widest distance. He spun occasionally and began attacking those at his rear. Orcs and Goblins all converged to try and fight him while the clan pinched in from the other side. Soon more and more adventurous, daring warriors were in the thick with Seth and the Goblin forces were scattered and thinned greatly.

"Come on Jack!" a brave warrior said to the samurai who hung by his side. "Get up into the fight!"

"I may not be at my fullest" Jack said. He jumped, slashed apart an arrow, and landed in a pouncing position. "I think I will stick to a defensive strategy..." Jack made a giant leap up and floated in front of the archer's line of sight. The Goblins fired at him, turning their attention away from the range fighters of the clan and focusing their fire on the supreme swordsman in the air. Jack easily sliced the arrows and deflected the slugs from the crossbows, acting as a distraction that the archers and gunmen behind him used to pick off the Goblin bowmen with perfect precision.

When Jack landed he landed in the outskirts of the battle where the Goblins were retreating away from the main battle. He kicked one away, cut another's armor off and destroyed several weapons, all with only one hand. With a fierce and sudden glance he parted the enemies and forced them into a panicked retreat. Just as suddenly as it began, the second wave was defeated and the Goblins that hadn't retreated were strewn about on the floor. The men cheered and moved toward the gate to seal it up and prevent any more attacks from coming. Seth led them and was the first to look outside.

"Oh....wow" he said. Everyone else was rather speechless. Out in the moors, where the morning mist was finally clearing, a massive force of Goblins and Orcs and mercenary robots and all kinds of barbarous berserkers were gathered, all of them with a weapon to use.

"If it isn't one thing" someone said "it's got to be everything else!"

"What are you talking about?" Seth asked. Jack arrived just in time to see the scene. He calmly started assessing a strategy based on the enemies all around and let the cool breezes pass by him.

"You think we got this powerful" a clansman said "just for being pretty? We had to beat our way to the top of the guild food-chain!"

"And these are your fallen adversaries" Jack said, instantly understanding. "They have bonded together under the shared drive for revenge."

"That's the most of it" a man said. "Let's hope they don't get that revenge." Jack took his sword up as best he could with one hand. Seth posed with equal seriousness, equal ferocity, and the clan behind them all prepared for the war they were about to fight...

* * *

Mid afternoon. The moors were spotted with bodies and fallen siege equipment. A small fire was climbing the walls of the hall, but the loud splashes of water quickly doused them. The clansmen, who wore their garb tattered and torn from all the fighting, worked to repair their great hall, all separate but together, drifting from task to task without any interaction. While the entire clan worked to assess and undo what damages the Goblin horde had done, the true victors of the great battle stood at the top of the highest tower, looking out onto the battlefield with their swords sheathed and their arms crossed. Jack and Seth, undeniable warriors, were recognized as the truest conquerors of the battle. Their damage and actions had topped even the most powerful warrior who had taken the field that day...

Of course, during that entire battle, the Scotsman was absent. Jack and Seth now scanned the moors for signs of movement, hopefully one that they could identify as the Scotsman himself. Seth peered through a compact set of digital binoculars, scanning the field carefully.

"Anything?" Jack asked.

"Nothing" Seth answered. "You want to try?" Jack took the binoculars, inspected them quickly to assess how they worked, and placed them up to his eyes. He scanned the same ground that Seth did but paid more careful attention not to what was moving but what was no longer moving. All the bodies, if he knew his friend correctly, would surely be beaten in a signature way, most of them cut or filled with holes. He saw no tell-tale sign that the Scotsman had been going through the field at any near moment, a terrible thought to accept.

"I suppose" Jack said, lowering the binoculars "it is possible that he had fallen early in the battle."

"Really?" Seth asked. "He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would just die like that. I mean, you know him too. He doesn't seem like that kind of guy, right?"

"No" Jack answered, looking back up to the plains. "That is what worries me. He would not fall, nor would he leave such an important battle without so much as a farewell or some kind of well-wishing utterance. He was last with his wife, was he not?"

"Right below this rampart" Seth said "is her chamber. I suppose we can peek in and check." Jack rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Peeking in on any girl's private chamber was warrant enough for him to get ashamed, but _hers!?_ Even if he were such a man, he doubted that he'd find much pleasure in doing it.

"We will call for her" Jack said "before we go in, lest we risk intruding on her privacy."

"Good idea" Seth said, obviously thinking the very same thing as Jack. They climbed down the wall and made their way to the window, seeing that it was broken and the windowsill was scratched with very recent metallic marks. Jack climbed up and quickly looked around the room. It was in tatters. The walls were all marked with sword cuts and bullet holes, all from a recent and devastating fight. Jack went inside, against his instincts, and looked around. He found not the Scotsman's wife, but the Scotsman himself, sitting on the edge of a torn and beaten bed, his head hung down somberly.

"My friend" Jack said, moving toward him. "What has happened? Were you injured?"

"No lad" the Scotsman said with a heavy sadness. "I'm fine..."

"And your wife?" Jack asked. The right question to pang his heart. Jack knew his wife, and assumed not the worst but what was obvious. He clenched a fist and looked to the window. "It's been too long since the battle. They must be far away by now."

"They've gone back already" the Scotsman said as he rose to his leg and mechanical prosthetic. "How could I have been such a lout? GAH! MY own bonny wife, captured again, and I was right there! What could I do? They were too much for her! I couldn't just stab them to death, could I? No! They were all swarming her like maggots to a...to a..."

"Fresh, salty mutton?" Seth said as he swung in. He looked in higher spirits than either of the men, which seemed to irk the teary-eyed Scotsman. "So, you know where they took her, right?"

"Of course I do" the Scotsman said, "that's what's making me eyes watery. Tain't any spice around to swell them up, is there?"

"What's stopping you from just going there and getting her back?" Seth asked.

"If that were the case" the Scotsman said "I'd be gone already, wouldn't I? It's a fortress, lads, the likes of which you can't imagine. Built from the very earthen element, guarded by insane magic and blessed by ancient, immortal druids living in the rocks and the trees that those damn, heathen Goblins and gibblets built their home out of! I can't go in if I wanted to! No entrance, no...bonny lassie-girl of me loving life..." Seth seemed to be keeping himself hopeful, but suck hopeless revelations struck him deeply. Jack, however, seemed to have a sudden idea.

"Such magic" Jack began, "sounds quite similar to another type of magic that I know of..."

"What?" the Scotsman asked. Jack simply took out his Gem and let him see it. The Scotsman was curious at first, but then the epiphany hit and Jack clutched the Gem. A light glowing flame circled his bandaged hand, burning the cloth away and staying clear of his skin.

"I believe fate is on our side" Jack said, "at least in part."

"It's a stretch, I'll admit" Seth said, "but since when has a stretch affected our chances?"

"Alright then, lads," the Scotsman began, "get your things together and packed up. Don't take nothing you regret with you, though. We're heading out immediately." The determination in his voice forced his tears back into their ducts and inspired a fierce, roaring ambition in both men. The idea was obvious, and the plan was in motion. They moved out just as immediately as the Scotsman demanded, on course for the Goblin Gorge...


	21. Episode 21

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXI. The Badlands

* * *

From the highlands and to the hills, down the hills and through the swamps, their journey seemed never ending. Their quest seemed impossible, but their hope stayed with them. Though they trudged through waist-high water filled with organic muck that stirred with creatures. The Scotsman, stern and tall, his eyes burning like torches with determination. Seth, with his hair floating behind him in the water, gathering frogs and other little creatures, stayed focused and determined to follow through behind his friend. Jack was the same as he always seemed, the stoic heroic warrior who pressed through the darkness with his eyes of light. He pressed on, regardless of the obstacle, and through his lead and the Scotsman's guide they finally arrived at the border of a dead and barren land.

"This be it, lads" the Scotsman said as they stopped in the grass. "This is their territory."

"Whose?" Seth asked.

"All of em" the Scotsman said. Before them was a sandless desert, a stretching red and brown terrain with only the remnants of skeletal life spotting the ground in all directions. No trees, just dead husks of brownish-red bark and brittle, thin limbs extending out. The ground was cracked and dry from the constant drain of water and the lack of rain. No clouds dared pass over the dead plain, but the damp clouds of the Highlands drifted freely behind the travelers. Even a rumble of thunder was heard from far away in the swamplands. They looked back and the creatures retreated from Seth's long hair. A more jovial Scotsman would make a joke, but there was work to be done.

"Let us go" Jack said. He took the first step into the dry ground. Seth followed him and the Scotsman's metal leg hit next. They started their walk in a brisk gait, nothing pressing or duteous about their pace. They didn't want to expend any energy until some random enemy showed its head.

"All of the clans you've fought" Seth began "live in this general region?"

"That's right, laddie" the Scotsman said. "This wasn't always a dead-man's land, though. Until they came it was nice, just a plain savannah with plenty of fast, tasty critters runnin around, skipping about...then they came with their machines and their factories, stripped the land bare."

"Aku" Jack said.

"Aye" the Scotsman said. "Pretty soon this land was deader than a whale beached on top of a mountain, deader than a ram lost at the bottom of the ocean! No one wanted it, no one wanted anything to do with it at all, so a bunch of roving bandits and outlaws settled here and made their base in the middle of this place. No one would want to fight em but us, because we didn't like them."

"Self-justified justice?" Seth asked.

"They were bastards" the Scotsman said, obviously lost in a very stern memory. "We did what we had to do and garnished a lotta hatred among them. They teamed up with other bandits and clans of criminals and grime-gropers to form one big alliance. We've been fightin them for the last few years, and they always seem to get an unfair advantage against us. Even so, with out sharpened blades and keen minds and rock-hard muscles, we overcome them and drive them back through our marshes to this blasted land..."

"How many times has she been kidnapped?" Seth asked.

"This ain't the first" the Scotsman said, "but I'd be lying like a lion-eating sheep if I said it wasn't the worst time! Any fortress I can penetrate, but even me Rune sword is no match against their natural magics. It's too pure, even though their not using it for purity-sake."

"We should make haste now" Jack said. He stepped up onto a tall skeleton and pulled out his Gem, placing it up to his eye. A pair of gleaming, golden eyes and a shining yellow grin appeared under the shadow of the boney structure. It looked up at Jack, who scoped through his round sphere, gazing at the horizon, and reached a thin and ragged-nailed hand up to grab his leg. Jack looked stunned. He was pulled swiftly down and the Gem fell from his hand.

"Jack!" Seth exclaimed. The Scotsman stopped Seth with his thick hand, stomped forward and raised his mechanical machine-gun leg.

"Get down, Jackie-boy!" the Scotsman roared. Jack struggled in the pitch darkness against this enemy force that he couldn't see. It was some lank and thin creature covered with hair with wide eyes and a wider, malice grin. It snarled and made excited, animistic sounds at it and Jack tumbled in the dusty dirt under the skeleton. The Scotsman started firing his gun leg at the mound. Jack took to the ground in cover while the creature escaped from the top. The Scotsman saw it, a little man-sized monkey-creature with a wide head. It's fur was raggedly stripped with dark brown and black from its legs to its neck. Two little black horns curved up from its head. Its hands and feet were thick and padded with callouses and raggedly equipped with torn and jagged yellow nails.

It leered over its shoulder with the fire Gem in its greedy hand. The Scotsman aimed and began firing again, chasing the creature with his bullets even as it ran away and maneuvered all around on the flat, dead ground. The Scotsman was kicking up a stormy dust cloud from so many missed shots and stopped himself. The creature made a four-legged run away with the Gem in its mouth, pressed between its thin lips. Jack emerged from the skeletal mound and immediately gave a daring chase.

"Let's go" Seth said as he drew his sword and chased after the beast as well. The Scotsman had to retract the barrel of his gun before he gave chase and accelerated as quickly as he could to catch up with the other two. Though his frame was bulky and heavy, his strength and determination to save his wife powered him through the pain.

* * *

Jack and Seth stood atop a short mound of dirt bordered by animal skulls in the middle of the wastes. They looked in all directions, spying hard with the stark equipment on hand. Jack used the binoculars to scan the horizon for signs of life or some dwelling fit for a creature while Seth concentrated and tried to track the fire Gem with his lightning one. He was able to make a very feint light that seemed to only glow out from the Gem, but it didn't focus and point in any one direction. The Scotsman finally caught up, panting and sweating up a storm, only to fall at the foot of the mound and plant his chin at Jack's feet.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked, looking down.

"I'm fine" the Scotsman said. "A little walk never did anyone in, now did it...?" Though he spoke so carelessly he could barely breath and turned himself over to wheeze and catch his breath. "I ain't as young as you lads. Just gimme a minute and I'll be up again..." The Scotsman breathed while Jack and Seth searched.

"Damn that little thing" Seth said. "A sneak attack. They must have known we were coming."

"I am doubtful" Jack said. "If they knew we were coming, why prepare such an inconvinient and unorganized attack on us? They would be sure to lure us somewhere, possibly in the swamp, if they were to dispatch of us."

"True" Seth said "but someone was waiting for you at that place. It's obvious that they planned an ambush."

"They aren't pretty fighters" the Scotsman said as he sat up a bit. "They'll hide around any corner or under any rock they can fit in and not even bother to shout surprise before they dive out and shank ya. You gotta be reeeeal careful in this place, lads. It ain't called the Deadlands for no good reason, you know..." Seth suddenly became a bit suspicious and took his eyes away from the Gem, drifting them down, glaring at the mound of dirt under his feet. Jack followed his friend's intuition and slowly turned his head to the side. The Scotsman had finally caught his breath and was preparing to stand up with a creaking crack of his spine.

"Ooooooh, haggis" he groaned, pushing out his back. A hand latched onto his arm, jutting out from the mound of dirt. Jack and Seth hopped from the dirt and let the Scotsman stand with the feeble arm weakling trying to pull at his thick, muscly bicep. "Wha? What's this? Hey, lads, I caught some kindda twig on me arm hair!" A monster came out, lanky and furry like the one they all searched for, this one with a green face and solid deep-blue fur and longer, sharper teeth in its mouth. It leaped forward and sank its teeth into his arm. The Scotsman just looked at him and laughed.

"You think you're enough of a monster to tackle with me?" he said. He gave his arm a strong flex and broke the monster's teeth off in his arm. Then, with a harder flex, the shattered enamel shot out at the paralyzed monster's body, impacting like a hail of dull arrowheads. The blow had barely scratched the Scotsman. He just brushed the blood off and tied the marks with a thick cloth of wool. "You think you're gonna stop me you worm-liver'd little hack-spotting, gizzard-choking ass-hatted puke-of-a-poodle punk!" The Scotsman raised his arm up high over head and slammed it down. The Runes shined brightly and the monster's corpse evaporated on impact.

"Nice job" Seth said. He hopped forward and stabbed into the dirt mound. Jack hacked and slashed at the mound, scattering solid dirt in all directions as he attacked. "Come help us out here!"

"You got it!" the Scotsman said. He jumped up and delivered a powerful blow, exploding the mound of dirt. A group of the little, lanky demon-monkeys popped out and pounced through the air at the men. All three of them saw the attacks, and their eyes flared up with combative threat.

Jack jumped up, grabbed a furry head and kicked it down to ascend even higher. In the air he performed multiple attacks against the charging enemies. His sword deflected off the slashing claws and biting teeth of the monkeys that flew at him, and in no time he was back on the ground. He made a rotating kick that led down, smashing the head of one monster to the ground, and he slashed another one out of the air.

Seth had a longer breadth to attack with and used his long sword to his advantage, keeping them away and kicking the ones that got close. He took his Gem into his hand, lowered his sword and let them charge in. The dust around him started crackling with static energy and in an instant he threw his arm straight up and a bolt of arcane lightning blasted the enemies away from him. A clearing formed around him as well and the dead ground crackled briefly with a biting electric flash. He slowly lowered his arm, which twinged and seemed to shake with tension. Seth tried to calm it down but it took an incredible strain of energy just to open his fingers.

"I can't do _that_ anytime soon" Seth decided. He put his Gem away and grabbed his sword with his right hand and turned to the monsters still conscious that got to their feet and snarled at him. He glared them down and wound a slash up, his arm tight across his chest and the blade over his shoulder. The monsters foolishly charged in and with a step forward and a mighty swing he blasted them away with his blade. The dust was finally settling and the air was finally cleared. Seth looked to Jack and the Scotsman, both of whom had cleared their respective enemies and stood in the middle of their quickly evaporating bodies.

"What is happening to them?" Jack asked as he watched the magical dissolve.

"They're earthen creatures" the Scotsman said. "Made from cursed wood and dark-magic dirt. Weird little beasts that feed on flesh to become real."

"I guess these were a fresh batch" Seth said. "No blood on the ground."

"Aye" the Scotsman said. "That can only mean we're close to the Gorge. They wouldn't place their nests all the way out here for the exercise walking in the sun all day...Let's get moving." Jack and Seth silently agreed. They sheathed their swords and walked after the Scotsman, who headed off into the horizon that was spotted with short, dirty bumps...

* * *

A loud and raucous rattling of metal bars rang out through the loud, stone halls of the cryptic, dark fortress. Two orcs stood guard at the source of the noise, though they stood a few paces away from the actual cage where the Scotsman's wife was being held. It certainly wasn't the first time she'd been help captive, but it was certainly no less frustrating than any of the other times that it happened ti her. She shook and pounded upon the bars with all her steely rage while screaming the worst, most crass and threatening obscenities any of these trolly monsters had ever heard.

"Is she still at it?" one of the guards asked. The other shrugged and opened the reinforced iron door leading to her room just a crack.

"I swear it, too!" she raged. "You won't stop bleeding out yer arse for **EIGHTEEN WEEKS!!!** You better start praying I kill the lot of ya before I get a chance to-" The door was slammed shut. The orcs returned to their positions and nervously stood firm.

"I wonder" the second began "what kind of man is attracted so such a woman..."

"There can't be any man alive with those kinds of ears" the other said. "To take all that in and remain loyal...I can't even think about it." They stayed silent for a while, stil hearing the muffled shouting and banging through the stone walls. Inside the room where her metal cell bars held her inside, the Scotsman's Wife was slyly carving a hole through the thick stone wall that led right outside. An automated voice-recording device was blaring out her previously voiced ranting rage while a set of robotic fists were pounding and rapping at the bars.

"If those fists" she began to herself "don't wear down the bars before I'm done digging I'll just have to repel down to the side of this building and get myself home through the swamps. This is no time for me to be a damn damsel in distress. This lout lot is out for me blood, and me husband's blood too. The sooner I blitz their king over and out of his throne the sooner we can end this stupid war and the sooner we can redecorate that godless, ugly little hall of a mansion I live in!" With her rage she punched a solid hole through the wall with her broken sword hilt. She looked down hopefully and continued digging.

Suddenly the doors were thrown open, and her escape attempt was caught and halted suddenly. She turned with a start to see the wretched Goblin King in his regal red robes and golden armor standing in the doorway, completely dwarfed by both the orc guards at his side and by the very sword he carried that squeaked behind him on its wheeled sheathe. He stepped forward, standing barely under three feet, and looked up at the pouting, irked woman, and he looked at her with a wide grin of his yellow teeth.

"Well, well, well" it said in a booming, deep voice. "Here we are again, eh my dear?" She reached down and shut down her machines, bringing a silence to the room, then slowly set her fists at her hips and cocked her brow down at the little king. "I've grown more than tired of our constant warring against you and your terrible company of warriors."

"So stop" she said, crossing her arms. "It's not that hard, I think, to stop losing if you abandon a losing campaign."

"Your husband is a fool" he said, now invoking a bit of reserved wrath. She just glared at him. Her wire required more tension for an appropriate snap. "Even now, our scouts tell us that he is walking through the Deadlands with the Samurai Jack and his other companion with silver hair. They come to seek to rescue you, but we have already taken one of the means they have of entering the Gorge!"

"What?" she asked.

"You see" the king began, pointing one of his long and thick fingers up, "our entire citadel within this gorge is surrounded and protected by a mystical barrier, a power we inherited in ancestral times long, long ago, a power to command nature, the very dirt and ground under us all! Why else would we-"

"You done talking, shrimpy?" she asked. "Hey, I'm hungry. Go get some of your brothers and whip me up some scampi!" The king looked at her curiously through his glowing, orange eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. You're the runt of your clan, ain'tcha? No one's as big a shrimp as you, are they? Well then, why don't you just hop on a hot plate and serve yourself like a good host should!?" The King snapped his fingers together and the orc guards poked their spears at the woman. They stopped far enough away from her body and flipped a switch on the hilt, sending a paralyzing shock of electricity through the tip. She was shocked, but it only showed in the cringe of pain on her face. Otherwise, once she stopped smoking, she was perfectly fine if more visibly angry.

"With all four of you out of our way" the King continued, "our power will be heightened a billionfold! The very earth will sunder and move from under our feet and rise up to fulfill our ultimate prophecy!" He turned and shot his arms out, billowing his cape in an artificial gust. "The Goblin Kingdom will reign supreme over the earth, the sea, the sky, and the entire world!"

"But you'll still be ugly!" she said. The King lowered himself in defeat and walked out of the room with another snap of his fingers. The second shock served to better hurt her, as she went down and sat on the floor while she blew on her smoking skin. The orc guards were inside the room now, wearing protective headgear with built-int ear guards just in case she started up another stormy rant. However, what happened was much more moving and frightening to them. She just sat against the wall and glared them down, casting an impatient and warring glower their way, no matter which one looked, switching her glare back and forth. She played them like fools and continued to dig with one arm behind her back as she laid her side against the wall. They were too nervous to watch her.

Now, to make things worse, she grinned as she glowered, and enhanced the disturbing factor of her cold glaring.


	22. Episode 22

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXII. The Scotsman Overcomes Himself

* * *

The trio ran through the expansive badlands with their weapons drawn. The mounds of dirt that gave the wretched birth of the earthy monsters burst all around them with groups of the creatures running full speed after the fleeing men. When one would near a sword would swing down and cut it into the dirt that it was created from. The monsters with long, mangled claws and gnarled fangs came charging from all directions at all speeds. They roared and growled in their high, monstrous voices as they charged, and all those growling roars were cut short by the singing swings of metal through the air.

"They are endless!" Jack said.

"Keep running, lads!" the Scotsman called. "It's just through that pass up ahead and we'll be nearly there!"

"Doesn't sound like we're near it at all!" Seth said. Still, they kept running, propelled forward by the youthful rage of purpose, the arrogant struggle against impeding, impossible odds. Then age overcame one of them and the heavy Scotsman started to lag behind in a slower, panting drag. Jack and Seth stopped and defended him as he hobbled forth, the monsters encroaching even harder to press on the weakest member of their group, until finally the Scotsman fell to his knees and heaved tired breaths.

"I cannay do it" the Scotsman moaned. He pressed a hand to his forehead and wiped away a thick layer of sweat that had gathered on his brow. "It's too long without any good tidings fer me to go on....you two lads, I'll stay and guard ya while you go on and rescue me bonny lass. If I survive I'll come again and help if I can, but...."

"Do not speak such things" Jack said as he slashed the beasts away.

"We're in this together, man" Seth added. "Besides, you want your wife to think badly of you for not rescuing her yourself!?" The Scotsman was hit with a new purpose. He struggled up onto his feet and stomped himself to a standing position, breathing hard with his chest puffed out. "You go on ahead and clear a path. We'll finish up here."

"What about the barrier?" the Scotsman asked. "Without that magic-"

"Forget about that" Seth called, catching a large group of pouncing beasts on his blade and making a quick step-in swipe to cut them all to dust. "Just go on! If you don't catch up to that damn thing we'll be one Gem down to the possible threat of one Gem they already have! We can't risk facing them single-handed!"

"Go, my friend!" Jack called, holding back a long-armed, blade-clawed creature with his sword in a powerful stance. "We will be right behind you!" Jack kicked the face of the creature and slashed it back to the elements it came from.

"Go!" Seth called. The Scotsman struggled to bring himself back to his feet. The sorrow he felt of losing his wife was multiplied by the pain of knowing that his body wasn't ready to move yet. He was still weakened by his own hefty physical state. He felt unable to continue, pressed down by his weight, and for the first time he felt that his adventure was over before it ever had the chance to begin, and he was succumbed to surrender.

"What're you doing, you kooky little mook!?" a harsh, berating female voice shouted. The Scotsman looked up with a start and saw his own wife fending off the beasts with her thin rapier. She was glaring them down, lowering their guard with her oppressive, fear-blasting gaze and sliced through the heads of the beasts with a wind-cutting stab and slash. She turned fully to him and set her sword onto her shoulders dressed up in the lacy green gown that he remembered her wearing so well. "Are ye just gonna lay there and cry aboot it or are ya gonna go and be the man I know you are!?"

"You think I fell for a weak little pissant?" she shouted again, this time with a longer rapier and her red hair flowing like auburn waves cascading down from the soft rocky hill of her head. "I fell in love with a man!" she shouted, cutting down a row of monsters and leaping away from a pouncing one that came in from the side. She stabbed through it, swung and threw its body into the bodies of two more, all of them shattering together in a wispy cloud of dust. "If you can't even stand up after you get a wee bit outta breath, the you don't deserve a nice warm bowl of slop in the evening!"

"Or a freshly-baked loaf of spiced bread in the morning!" the other called as she fought. Both desperate images of his beloved continued to fight off the monsters while the Scotsman seethed over his own poor state. Then, with a stomp, he began to stand. His metal leg clattered against the hard ground and shook his fleshy upper leg with the imbalanced weight he stood with. He stumbled slightly before standing fully straight and got even hotter glares from his wives as they continued to effortlessly fight off the beasts.

"You think a tiny man like you is worth me bothering to care for?" she shouted.

"You think I'd care to let a poor excuse of a warrior under me roof!?" she shouted as well.

"You think you're so good?"

"So strong!?"

"Can't even stand up on your own leg and that other, rageddy, rickety excuse of a limb you done drummed up at a pawn shop!"

"You half-legged pansy!"

"Weak little dog-snouter!"

"Pixie-dancer!"

"Maggot-haired tooth-flosser!!!"

"**ALRIGHT!!!"** The Scotsman finally bellowed. "**Quit yer GRIPING! You want me to move! I'LL MOVE FASTER THAN YOU C'N KEEP UP WITH!!!!!"** Jack and Seth were looking at him curiously. Even the monsters had stopped fighting at the sudden burst of his energetic cry. He was breathing quite heavily from his angry roar, but neither man knew exaclty why. Then, with a sudden rush of energy, the Scotsman turned and sprinted away, in the direction of his target, into a chasm that led to a gorge.

"Was that to be directed at us?" Jack asked.

"Let's focus on staying alive here" Seth said. He pushed the monsters away and cut them down in a consecutive stepping swing. Jack rejoined his own efforts to fight as well, carving the creatures down to the elements they came from, one cut at a time.

* * *

In the Goblin Gorge, a wide and huge opening in the earth that led to a shallow stream far down below, the Goblin King made his way under the escort of many guards across a strongly-roped bridge that led from the prison where the wife was kept to his castle. The castle, a great sanctuary of earthen design, an unnatural cave system carved out from the colossal wall where many other homes of wood and rope had been built, housed his mighty treasures and his great throne room. All the Goblins owned was a part of the earth itself. Everything was of dirt and wood, and the whole city built on the face of the vertical cliff smelled sweetly of herbs and dirt.

Smoke stacks spewed puffing clouds of thin, white steam that quickly dispersed in the open air from the many families baking food for their brave soldiers in the army. Those soldiers did not live in those homes, but in the barracks across the canyon wall from the castle. Built as an orderly massive hive of holes in the rock that all led down into the incredibly structured and well-kept training grounds, the grand army of stout Goblins and tall, muscular Orcs made their homes in the hollowed caves and rough, hay beddings.

The King's palace had the impeccable scent of meat being charred until just succulent enough without being blackened by the smoky fires that cooked the feast upon feast of delicious foods from the great cow-beasts that were kept and farmed from in the valley deep down below. Whole herds of cattle, all bigger than the Goblin farmers and butchers that tended then, with huge jaws and six legs walked along the tiny stream and ate the grass and mosses that grew along the side of the water, staying thick and juicy until their prime was reached. Then they were taken away to be made into meat. From that far down one could only smell those cows and the products of their existence, but it was too thin of a stench to reach up to even the lowest levels of the Goblin capital.

This was the great Goblin Gorge, a mighty citadel formed from the combined efforts of many different clans, and held fast together by the strong fist of the Goblin King himself, a man whose secrets of power had always gone unspoken as miraculous among his citizens. Only a select few, those brutish barbarians who had taken refuge against the Scotsman's clan recently, knew of the true source of his power. Deep in the caverns there was a hollow cave, a hidden room, and in that room of earthy delights such as berries and trees and crystals that shone perpetually with the light of the sun, there was an ancient column pedestal whereupon rested an earthen, misty, brown colored **Gem.**

The King knew only briefly of the magical properties of this mystical object, but from what he knew he used to benefit all his people and himself, passing the gifts of its earthen power along to the select few druids of the outer clans who grew monstrous plants and menacing living stone creatures in their spare time. They were the pinnacle of the learned amongst the Goblins and Orcs, and the magic-crazed fools of the barbarians and mercenary soldiers.

This was the place where the war had truly started, long ago, between the Scotsman's ageless clan and the merciless earth. A place where the magical bounty of nature never ceased, a place claimed by one who was long ago forgotten, a place where even the dark hands of Aku had yet to reach. Protected by the very power of the Earth itself, this was a place of great mystical power.

From the high tower prison where the Scotsman's wife was held chunks of ground and rock flew down from the highest level. Through the inginuic works of the determined, strong woman, her hole to freedom grew ever larger, and soon she would be able to break free. However, her efforts hadn't gone unnoticed. A young apprentice Goblin blacksmith caught sight of the odd pile of rocks and scratched his head over them. Suddenly, his head was struck by a falling object from far above, and he knew that a breakout was occurring!

"Oh no!" he exclaimed. "I have to warn someone!" So he ran inside and made his way to the top level, running up the steps and climbing the ladders that led up to levels of cells and hovels that no stairs were built for, and when he reached the top floor he moved past the guards in a panic and slammed his bare fist against the heavy iron door that kept the woman at bay. "Hey! Open up! I think there's a problem in there!"

"What's going on!?" an Orc guard shouted. The Goblin pointed frantically to the door.

"Breakout!" he shouted. "Breakout!" The Orc pushed him aside and opened the door. He found two Orc guards unconscious on the ground, their helmets dented and bashed into their skulls, and a large hole formed in the corner of the cell wall. The Orc's stubbled jaw began to shake and stutter, and he stormed inside expecting some strange prank. He looked all over the room, scanning from corner to corner and all along the ceiling. It was no use. No matter where he looked, that woman was gone, and before anyone could bother to notice the panic within the Scotsman's wife finished her steep, desperate scaling and jumped down onto the ground where her pile of debris had amassed.

"Whoops" she remarked. She moved and grabbed a broom from outside a nearby watch post and swept away the dust and stone, right off the canyon wall. "Can't have anyone knowing what I've been up ta. Got to cover my tracks, so to speak." She finished sweeping, put the broom back and made a stealthy escape through the dark crevices between the buildings, taking to the shadows, disappearing from sight. Just as she slipped away a group of spear-armed guards came running out and spread in all directions.

"Find that loud-mouth" a guard bellowed. "She can't have gotten far!" Knowing the irony of announcing herself to denounce the objective name she was being called she clamped her mouth shut and continued running off into a cave. She knew, in time, she would have been rescued, but this was no simple operation anymore. She was finally in the belly of the beast, finally without anyone trying to drag her away or hold her back. She stealthily knocked out a guard and took his long sword from his waist sheath, testing its balance with a few quick fencing swipes and then drew it up to her face to inspect it closely in the dim light.

"It'll have to do" she said. "I may not get far fighting that shrimpy wee-one with it, but I can fight off plenty other with it for now." Her goal was clear, though the path was dangerous. The Castle of the Goblin King, and the hidden chamber within it. "That Gem would look pretty nice on a necklace, I think..." With that determination over the true motives she had, she started off on an adventurous path into the light....

* * *

The creature with the glowing red Gem held in its mouth went galloping onward and stopped at a small mound of unliving dirt in the narrow chasm. Such nests were incapable of good growth on the ground, and thus along all the chasm walls that led to the ridge nearest to the Gorge pulsing, thin-membrane sacks holding the yet created creatures were grown out of the steep rocky walls. The creatures broke through the membranes when they were ready and fell to the ground, ready to fight, but these batches were all fresh and not yet cultivated fully, as the hard rocky surface was harder to draw life from than the ground.

The creature started looking over Gem with its wide eyes scanning its surface curiously. It twirled and turned it around in its long, jagged nailed fingers, watching the smoky inside swirl around in its dormant state. It held it up above to the dimly lit sky where the sun's rays had already started drifting down over an unseen horizon, and watched the red light glimmer off its surface. Then the creature dropped it and moved away in a sudden startle. The Gem landed into the dirt and dug itself a tiny hole to stay on. The creature tried hiding down low to the ground and slowly advanced again to touch it, but from within the swirling, hot mist of the Gem came a foreboding and glowering set of eyes. With a sudden demonic growl a thick, muscular arm of pure fire came out of thin air and clutched the creature around its furry neck.

"_**I do not permit weaklings to wield my power!!!**_" a deep and demonic voice roared from thin air. The hand clutched the creature's neck so hard that it shattered into fragile clay shards instantly, and the fiery arm was drawn back into the Gem where a glowing red set of eyes glowered out over a fang-mouthed demon face. _**"Only the strong can survive my flames..."**_ With that the Gem died back down into its dormancy and let the time pass for the passionate Scotsman to come up and claim it calmly.

"Here it is" he said, bring it up to his face to inspect it. "Hmm. Looks like the bugger's long gone. Must've dropped it or died before getting all the way there. Now then..." He gripped it tight and felt the spark of fire kicking up as his palm heated up from its mere presence against his skin. He looked back to the road he had just run, still full of breath and vigor, and started thinking with two fingers pressing against his furrowed brow. "What should I do now? Go back and help Jack? That lads got more spunk and power than I, that's for certain, and he's got an ally already with him. I guess that leaves me to go on ahead by meself....to the Gorge..." The Scotsman's heart swelled up with uncertainty, the worry of his wife clouding the raw determination in his mind, the drive in his heart. It dulled the fire within him until the sacks of creatures started to stir.

He looked up with a start and drew out his blade, keeping the Gem tightly clutched in the other, fire unknowingly forming around his hairy hand. The creatures that stirred within the confines of the thin, purple-colored sacks weren't like the ones grown out on the Badland plains. These were blessed with much less lively energy, and their form complimented that change greatly. Only one of every sic creatures within each sack would actually live, the others either long deconstructed or dead the moment they hit clean air. The ones that were left were hostile, evil, soulless, beyond animals. Utterly disgusting in their thoughts, they would eat up whatever remains of their former siblings they could and become powerful off of it. They even ate each other and grew stronger and stronger the more they cannibalized.

"Ah, here we go" the Scotsman groaned. He raised his glowing-hot fist up and awaited the first of many to drop down. A sack burst open and three bodies fell, only one landing on its ragged feet. These monsters were naked, purple-skinned and had nail-thin razor-sharp claws with bony little fingers and skeletal frames. Their faces were just as wide but only because the skin hung so close to their wide-boned jaws. No muscle or fat on them at all, no life, just blackness in their eyes and evil mist hissing up from their throats when they breathed. "Let's see what this thing can do against beasts like these" the Scotsman said, looking at his fire-balled fist. He made a quick punch and threw out a raging hot ball of fire that blasted through the frail monster's head and made a dull explosion of smoke and licking flames that shook that chasm walls. A single enemy was fallen, and by the shaking of the chasm more enemies were awakening. The Scotsman looked down at the amazing Gem in his hand and grinned.

"Now those boys are onta something" he said. "This thing's quite powerful in the right hands...**Good thing I found it!**" The Scotsman was ready and excited to fight again. More monsters meant more practice, more improper style correction, more exciting challenge, so he waited on top of the tiny dirt mound for the army to amass at his feet with a ball of glowing fire already forming in his hand...


	23. Episode 23

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXIII. Fire of Combat

* * *

More and more of the earthen monsters came in groups and legions, all racing towards their doom at the fiery hands of the mighty Scotsman. He had even sheathed his sword, so confident was he in his own abilities and the power of the fire-red Gem in his hand. Balls of fire were thrown and blown against the rock-solid walls. He threw extended, long-drawn blows that blew out a wide stream of flames, engulfing the enemies and shattering them back to the earth they came from as baked clay.

"HAHAHA!!!" He laughed, his voice hearty and healthy and full of arrogance. "What a bunch of ninnies! Come to yer doom if ya DARE!!!" The Scotsman punched fireball after fireball from his flame-coated fist and stomped the burning piles of hair into dust under the heavy heel of his combat boot. The monsters were coming in less and less frequency, he realized, and at one point a long stretch of time passed before the stirrings of another beast were heard.

At first it was a dry growling, then a guttural low from a moistened mouth. Following that along with the heavy stomping feet that it walked on was the voracious, loud chomping of some fleshy, hard substance in a wide, zipper-fanged mouth. The Scotsman waited impatiently, his fist tense and drawing flames that flared out in twisting spires, until the creature came into view. It wrapped its long fingers around a the blind corner of the chasm wall it came from and pulled itself out. Each finger was longer than the Scotsman was tall, thicker than his own arms, the knuckles each the size of his head and the pal wider than he as well. It was attached to a long tube of dark-purple fur striped with black that led up to its potbellied giant's body.

It's huge and furry head cast down glaring spotlights from its wide, moon-shaped eyes, echoing resentment and a primal predatory nature. Its mouth extended across its oblong face, from ear to ear rowed with even, sharp shark's teeth, each dripping with an uneven distribution of muddy texture from the hundreds of bodies it had already eaten. Two spiraling horns grew straight out from its head, both aiming like antennae to the sky. It spotted the Scotsman and opened its mouth with a loud and hollow roar, shaking the air and moistening it around the warrior at the same time. The Scotsman waited for the creature to stop and stand away with its wicked monster smile plastered across the width of its huge, wide maw.

The Scotsman stared with a flat, furrowed brow. The ball of flames around his fist had vanished and after a brief sigh his other hand drifted up to unsheathe the claymore from his back. He stabbed his sword into the ground, took off the tie that kept his hair in such a neat little ponytail and let the fiery meadows flow down to his neck while he secured the Gem of fire to his blade with the string. "You're reeeealy not helping yerself" he said to the monster. The beast squared itself against him, shaking with excitement and a dry, unhealthy wheeze with each breath. "Listen, beastie, I'm in no particular mood to stay around and play tiddly-winks with you and yer kin all day, so why don't you just go dig a big hole and sit your arse down in it for the next half of eternity?" His calm, threatening voice had no effect to sway the creature away. It was intent on charging in and made the first ground-crushing stomp forward with its huge, hairy foot.

"I thought so" the Scotsman said. He jumped away, fired powerful bullets from his gun leg to stay in the air a moment longer and landed in a squat with his sword drawn in both hands at his side. The Gem reacted to his angry power, the driving force of a vindicated elimination, and the runes of his sword began to glow brightly through the red-hot aura that circled the steel blade. With a single swing a wave of fire blasted forth, singing the fur and scarring the flesh of the beast, reeling it back in the pain of the undaunted power of sheer, brutal fire.

"**Firebrand!!!"** The Scotsman shouted. "I'll roast and spit you at the SAME TIME!!!" He charged in. One slice went through the beast's leg, burning through fur, flesh and bone all the same. Then with a mighty kick the foot was shattered into fragile shards of baked dirt and scattered over the ground. The monster hopped away and made a swipe with its jagged-nailed claws at the Scotsman's unguarded side. He leaned into the attack and made a daring swipe with his blade, cutting the fingers into ash with the widened blade of pure fire. He then twisted around and blasted a scorching wave through the air that exploded in the creature's mouth and forced a fierce screech of agony to echo through the entire canyon.

"You think you've got something to show me?" the Scotsman said, mocking the beast. He walked over, sword held at his side, and raised his machine leg up to kick and shoot down the creature at its ankle. The beast was felled and smashed into the ground. A crater formed at the back of its head from the tremendous impact it had with the dry, rock-hard canyon floor. The Scotsman walked up the beast's torso and made his way to the creature's stalk-like throat. He eyed it over, his hair billowing behind him and his steel-blue eyes glowing with malicious combat in his mind. "You're a sorry sight you sod-licking, worm-housing, owl-hootin', bloodless-goat-herdin', mound-humpin' piece of recycled popsicle-sticks!!!"

With his harsh, borderline unintelligible words spoken, the Scotsman drew his mighty, fiery sword up over his head and crashed it down, splitting the head of the beast in two with a glowing fissure that cracked down through the ground and belched from the open crack of earth a gust of fire. The Scotsman retreated, his sword still aflame, and began a newly spirited run through the chasm just as the mighty crater of flames exploded and took the beast with it!

"Hang on my bonny dear" he said as he ran, sheathing his cooled metal broadsword once more. "I'm comin! I'm on my way! I'm headen there even as I speak! I'll be there before two sheep can screw in a lightbulb!" He continued his rant as he ran through the chasm and on towards the undefended pass that led into the Goblin Gorge, right into the main earthen walkway that led to the Goblin Palace.

* * *

Jack and Seth had run into a minor problem. The monsters were all dead, the ones that came for them at least, but now a new impasse stared them down and forced them to decide. Jack gave the decision a long and hard meditative pause, resting his elbow in his hand and a fist gently to his head. Seth, meanwhile, peered through his lightning Gem and followed its bright trail of swirling mist-clouded light straight into the giant, flat wall that forked in two directions before them. They could see down either path in the fork for only a short distance, the left path going up and then rounding a corner and the right getting dark before rounding its corner. Both corners led in the same direction. The sun was beginning to travel down in the sky at long last, and neither warrior wanted to have to make any night-time vigils to protect themselves against undying forces.

"I propose" Jack said "that we take-"

"The right?" Seth said, anxious to move.

"Each path" Jack said. "You can go right, but I shall take the left path."

"Split up?" Seth said. "You can't be serious. Don't mistake me, Jack, I don't doubt your combat ability, but it would be better for the group as a whole if we stayed together. Splitting up now, in unfamiliar territory, well, that wouldn't do us much good for being a solid group."

"I realize that there are risks" Jack said "but you need not fear for my own safety. I have always been able to find my way through the twisting designs of the Earth, as well as the man-made labyrinths built under the oppressive hands of Aku and his minions. I shall find the path that will lead me back to my friends no matter what cumbersome obstacles try to impede me. Only worry for yourself, Seth, and stay ahead of your own expectations." Seth took Jack's words in slowly, but after a lengthy moment he gave an affirmative nod. Jack grinned and nodded back, and just as the wind blew the warriors beat it's pace and sprinted off in opposite directions.

Seth had taken the path already cleared by the Scotsman. The uneven path he trekked was marked by the stampeding prints of many monsters as well as a set of prints that built and built as Seth traveled through the howling, dead chasm at his maximum speed. He bound from rock to rock, staying above the ground whenever he could, making long dashes just above the ground with powerful kicks guiding him forward in the straight and narrow paths. His hair and coat billowed behind him like a two-fold cape of glistening silver and black leather. He kept the gloved palm of his hand nervously near his sword while the other was busy pumping with his legs to push him forward.

"Jack is right" Seth realized. He came out of a hasty dash and landed both feet on a vertical wall. He ran on the wall, defying gravity at will, for a great distance before jumping off and bounding from the opposite wall back to the ground with a sudden burst of speed. "He's been doing this longer than me, and in much more harrowing locales, I'm sure. I can trust him. I just hope he's going the right way...no, even if he isn't, he'll manage to catch up. I hope _I'm_ going the right way!"

Jack, meanwhile, ran through the rocky expanse of unused land with his sword tightly tied to his waist and his arms pumping in perfect rhythm with his legs. He sprang over small rocks, vaulted over medium rocks and kicked from wall to surface and rolled over large rocks, landing in quick-recovery rolls and dashing along the ground with long and swift strides. He became a blur from above, a black-and-white being that moved with incredible swiftness, ignoring all in his way and dashing over the rock formations that tested his amazing skill. He was a peerless runner, running even up a vertical surface when it presented itself, kicking off just before gravity overwhelmed him and landing on some smaller, much smaller than his sandal, footholds that he then sprung off of and continued his vertical ascent with swift-handed climbing.

He found himself out of the chasm, standing atop a huge jutting rock that towered out from the cracked walls of the canyon below, looking over a huge and expansive fissure in the distance.

"Surely that must be the Goblin Gorge" Jack said. He could see nothing but dead land beyond there, a desert that he couldn't recall traversing before, bordered by a misty haze of rolling, glade-filled mountains where lied beyond the world inhabited by the people oppressed. Jack realized that he was away from that darkness for once, away from the endless pursuit of Aku and his minions, and he sighed to himself. A gentle, dry wind picked up and blew his hair. "I have been traveling for so long, looking for so many things, and yet I have been met with so much disappointment and deceit. How can I be so sure that what I do now is not leading me to even more wickedness and deceit? How can I be positive that I am not already being lied to by the universe?" Jack looked around. He saw nothing. The Badlands were a fair distance away, and a longer distance from there Jack's eagle eyes spotted the beginnings of the murky swamps of the lower Highlands that he came from not so long ago with his friends in their journey.

The rocks beneath his feet cracked. Jack's initial reaction to this was delayed and he stayed at a straight, surprised face for a bit. Then he was lowered, a very quick jarring as the rocks crumbled beneath him, and then suddenly he was falling. His wooden sandals caught the rocks beneath him and he began a frantic surf down the very steep cliff face. He kept his balance as best he could, found his center, collected himself and his surroundings, and then brought onto his face a cocky grin as the wind blasted past him in his incredible speed. The rush of life and vigor propelled him to move. He dodged rocks and cracked in the wall, stayed on the guided smooth path and rode the wall all the way to the bottom of the Gorge, onto a path beaten down and formed by living activity, right at the border of the field of cattle the Goblins hoarded...

* * *

Chaos had broken out in the Goblin Gorge. Troops of Orc guards and Goblin spearmen and patriotic bandits who flew the colors of the Goblin King on their armor were rushing about in a panicked frenzy, searching for the escaped filly that was currently on the lam. The Scotsman's wife stayed hidden in the chaos, hiding in plain sight with a cloak over her body and a hood hiding her face. She was busy standing away from the rushing guards, staring down the illustrious rows of gilded holes in the canyon wall that marked the king's castle, making her plans for her powerful entry. She moved through the crowds of people, Goblin women and children and old and impoverished moving from alley to alley to find their homes while the guards rushed from place to place, weapons held tight at their side and armor rattling loud enough to hear across the way.

"This is malarkey" she said under her breath. "I can't believe they're just running around like a bunch of headless chicks! You'd think they'd try looking in their thinnest nooks and crannies for the crafty escape-artist lass they be searchin' for!"

"I agree, miss" a tired-voiced young Goblin said. She turned with a start, her cloak unmoving from her thick form, and saw a shady looking character, even by Goblins standards, leaning against a thin wooden post in a stylish white suit and hat flipping a gold coin in his hand. "All the thinnest nooks and crannies, now that'd be a surprise to to find a woman like her hiding there." She became instantly furious but hid it well, despite the steam she puffed from her nostrils. The Goblin chuckled to himself and tipped the brim of his hat up. "Yeaaah, she'd be the craftiest girl in the world to hide in a place like that. But you know what they aren't expecting her to do?"

"Tha'd be what?" she asked skeptically.

"Make a break for it" he said. "Check the main bridge." He pointed his bony finger over to the main bridge that led straight to the castle gates across the Gorge. Two guards stood at the end on her side and two more guarded the bridge at the castle. Aside from that there was no one. Two guards and then a clear and empty break for the castle. She grinned under her dark hood and palmed the tough grip of her stolen sword, preparing her plan to act at the slightest moment. "Maaaan if she would break for it now I'd get a new silver watch and three weeks worth of free food."

"Oh really?" she said, hiding her excitement with a graveled voice of an unclear throat. "I guess I missed the betting window, didn't I? I'd like to take you up against them odds."

"How about you do it now?" he asked. "I'd be remiss if I didn't take a stranger's bet this late in the game." She smirked under her hood, arrogant and full of preemptive victory, a smirk much like her crooked-toothed husband would wear. She extended her hand and shook with the Goblin, then went walking off down the ridge and towards the bridge. The shifty Goblin watched her go, right to the bridge, right next to the guards, and then right past. He scoffed, caught his coin and turned away. "Guess I'm not too lucky today" he said before disappearing into the alley.

"I can wait" the Scotsman's wife whispered. "I can wait until something better comes along. A distraction can help me out. I don't need to be rushing in, sword a-glaring and teeth a-lashing like me fool of a husband. I can be patient enough to wait out a better opportunity. I just need to find a better hiding place and stay there for a bit, keep hidden and stay low...and stop talking to meself." She adjusted her hood to better cover her face and walked on, staying away from the main thoroughfare where the guards and soldiers made their hurried marches and patrols to try and find her.

"Where else should we look?" one Goblin soldier asked another. She listened in, hoping to find a better place to stay in the context of their conversation.

"We already tried the residents along the north end of this side" the other one said. "We tried the main taverns, bakeries, butcher shops, grocers, food stands and the sweets shops and got nothing." She silently seethed over all the notions that she would only hide where there was food. "The barracks hasn't reported anything yet."

"Yes they have" the first one said. "A guard was found unconscious and his weapon was missing! That means she's armed."

"Oh no!" the other replied. "That's incredibly bad! What weapon did she steal?"

"Does it matter?" the first asked. "As long as she's loose I don't think anyone's safe, especially not the king!" She grinned at this, because it was true.

"Maybe we should relocate our forces for a while" the other said. "Defend the castle as long as we know that's where she'll go." The Goblin pulled out a little radio and turned away to talk into it. When the first guard looked over to see what he thought was there she was gone, her cloak no longer casting its hidden shadow against the wall and pulling the wrong attention from the guards. She was off and dashing across the ridge, making a clean break for the least guarded passage way of all. A bridge linking both sides of the gorge, thin and narrow and in a weathered disrepair, was completely unguarded and no traffic traveled it. That would be her route to the castle, though it was the longer one of any other choice she had.

Still, with the blade she stole at her side and a healthy appetite for destruction and action, she felt confident in her choice and ready to act at once. She ran so fast that her cloak came undone and billowed behind her. She picked up her speed and her hood blew back, letting out her rust-colored locks to bounce behind her with each tremendous step she took. The Goblins guards and Orcs nearby turned to her, taken aback in disbelief, and watched her run for the bridge unimpeded.

"We found her!" an Orc called into a radio. "She's taking the north-most bridge to the west side of the Gorge! Repeat: the north-most bridge to the west side of the Gorge! Get guards there now! NOW!!!" Groups of guards stopped and changed direction to head north. Those already going that way ran faster. She was already at the bridge now, unaware of just what powerful forces were heading her way and totally uncaring as to what slight power they charged at her with.

"You'd better bring an army" she said, drawing out her blade and holding it high. "I've got enough fight for every filly, tilly, Timmy and Jane in this lot of land! Come on! I'll take ye all on!!" She stopped suddenly, right in the middle of the bridge. She took a fencing stance and waited. The bridge began to shake violently and sink down with the weight of rushing guards and soldiers, all of them holding swords and spears and axes and maces against her single, bladed saber. Still, faced with such hopeless odds, the clans-woman inside her made her smile and a mad rage of battle overcame her. She was castle bound. Nothing was going to stop that...


	24. Episode 24

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

The Goblin patrols reported in throughout all the chasm on their walkie-talkie radios. Havoc had broken out. The hounds of war had been unleashed! The Scotsman's Wife was fighting her way to the castle on her own with nothing but a sword and a menacing glare and debilitating voice for chiding to power her through the lines of guards. Line after line charged her as she made her way gingerly across the bridge, but they were only cut down by her fast-moving sword and carried away by the retreating wave of Orcs or Goblins that managed to outrun the length of her sword. She handled the blade like a rapier, light in her flicking wrist, and cut with incredible speed as if she wasn't wielding a weapon at all but held in her hand a tightly balled gathering of air and wind that cut razors into her enemies.

"Be aware" a Goblin lookout hiding in the concave turret of the castle wall reported in diligent monotone. "Target is large and powerful. Three troops have fallen already. She is making her way across the north bridge to the west of the chasm. Her target is the Goblin Palace. Stop her. Please, someone stop her." He clicked the radio off and pulled off his long-distance goggles to give his tiny, beady eyes a rub-down. He paced across the floor to his jittery, jumpy partner and tapped his shoulder. "I'm getting some grog. I'll get you some to."

"Not now, man!" the Goblin said with extreme panic and conspiratorial worry. "We've got way worse problems right now, man. Look!" The jaded Goblin sighed and looked through his goggles at the western entrance of the chasm. Down the winding, earthen path the Scotsman was charging, his mouth wide open and roaring some arcane battle tune and his sword hand gripping tight the hilt of his broad, strong blade. The Goblin took out his walkie-talkie again and flipped a switch to a different channel, rolling his tongue around in his mouth and parting his lips with a devious grin. His voice took on a graveled, despicable tone now, like a dark radio personality that only reported the glee of murder over the waves, and his voice rang out from all the short-range wide-wave radio receivers in all the bandit and clansman hideaways supported by the Gorge.

"Alriiiight, all you creeps and captors" he began in his dangerous new persona, "listen up. We've got us a real live jive heading down to the palace today. An uninvited guest from the west, might I say. Let's give this party-crasher a real nice send-away, back to the moors and rolling plains that match his skirt a little better than our dusty brown and orange setting. He's called the Scotsman, and maaaaan he's bad! Plenty of our boys out there can testify to that, I'm sure. Take him down, fellas, and we'll get you some dibs on his crib!" The broadcast ended and the Goblin cleared his throat, palming it in his wide, green hand to try and massage the pain away. He was monotone and gruff again.

"Anyway, I'm getting some grog" he repeated as he left. "Feel free to stay here." The jittery Goblin was hiding in the corner, terrified of the voice that came from his throat, and had his ears folded into his mouth. All across the gorge jetpacks and anti-gravity devices clicked on and roared and hummed and propelled a menagerie of bounty hunters of all shapes, types and sizes to intercept the Scotsman. All the men who had sworn their life against this single man and all he stood for, all the beaten dogs of former clansmen who wore tattered tartan plaid with lost honor and vindicated rage. The Scotsman stopped himself as the first line before him closed and allowed a second to form behind him. He drew his sword and placed his back to the wide opening of the Gorge, not afraid to look back and measure his distance.

"Scared, Scotsman?" a bounty hunter said. He stepped forth, tall and lithe with the long face of a troll half-hidden in a headdress of moss and living plants. His toothy jaw was holed with toothless marks where his large teeth had fallen out and the rest of the enamel still left intact in his skull stayed visible and yellow. He had small, round eyes glowing pale-blue from beneath the mossy cover of his long accessory and held a shalelie in his hand. "I was, ya know, and still you took yer hand to my people's land and grabbed all ye could before tassin it oot ta sea!!!" The man leaned for forward, an arc over the stout, stocky Scotsman, who just looked at him with a lost sense of curiosity.

"Eh, what?" the Scotsman said. "What kinda accent areya talkin with, laddy? I can barely understand you!" The man suddenly stepped forward and swung his club at his foe. The Scotsman ducked under and dodged to the side. Bounty hunters were moving in quick. He only had one option and he used it. He played his ultimate trump as a surprise and filled his hands with a righteous fury. He spotted a clearing from where the men were standing near the solid edge of the cliff. He made a tremendous leap over them all, granting the brunt of them an unwanted and much malignantly avoided glance up his kilt, and landed with a crash of the ground. They groaned with a new disgusted purpose for loathing the man and rushed in as the sword started to kick up fire.

"Taste a licking of me **BRIMSTONE SABER!!!**" The Scotsman turned full around, crossing his legs to work the tension through his body, and made a wide slash. A full half-circle of continuous flames exploded out from the air and the gigantic blast of heat and energy shook the entire shelf. The roaring blast of fire was seen from nearly all over the Goblin Gorge, a bright and startlingly sudden echo of fire that faded away just as quickly and destructively as it had appeared. Most of the bounty hunters had been blown away by the sudden attack, but the stronger ones were still standing. Robots mostly who had been charred but left otherwise undamaged by his attack. The tall, lanky man survived as well and rose up out of a quickly-summoned patch of dry, now blackened earthen roots. A small group of men were stayed solidly on the ground, spitting sneers and hot glares out at the Scotsman through their wide eyes above freckled, bulbous noses.

"Ah, cripe" the Scotsman said as he began to pant. "You mean I've still gotta deal with you lot too? Just what I need today, an arm-wrestling match with a cod, a sod and a pack of liverless minnow! It's like fishing in shallow water with you wee buggers...!!"

"Wha?" the tall one grunted. "No one can understand ye, can'cha realize?" And so the face-off intensified, an exhausted Scotsman against completely healthy bounty hunters, one with a grudge and others with eyes set on the number that came posted with his name and face...greedy bastards.

* * *

Coming down with a rumbling roar form the steep rocky incline of the cliff, Jack swerved and swooped across the rounded formations on the wooden heels of his sandals and made a flying leap off a ramp formation into a misty, shallow riverbed. He landed with a loud splash of water flying around him and rose up to his full height, ankles deep in running water, with a heroic shine radiating off his form. Jack marched steadily forward through the fog and his a splatting substance on the ground. He opened his eyes suddenly and looked down, seeing what he hoped was mud on the bank of the river.

"Mooo" a cow lowed. Jack looked over and saw a particularly meaty cow grazing nonchalantly with its big eyes only half open and its jaws moving semi-circularly as it chewed. All of Jack's hopes vanished and he worked in a panic to scrape his sandal and shake off the excess on the river bank before proceeding. He finally got it clean and washed it with a splash in the river before taking a single step into the fog and bumping into a stealthily hidden foggy-white cow. He stumbled back and heard yet another plop sound and became instantly frustrated.

"Hee-hee-heeeee!" A voice shot through the fog. "Yeah, that's tha thing 'bout these-here cows! You can't take a steep out in that thar field and keep yer shoes clean!" Jack looked around in a panic. The cows were lazily moving around in no distinct pattern but the fog obscured his vision. He could only make the cows out by the vague motions of their shadows against the damp cover and the rustling of ground and lowing of moos that seemed to move about.

"Who is there?" Jack demanded. He heard a cow and felt the approach of danger all at once. He turned and prepared to draw his blade, staying on the alert in case an enemy would show his face through the mist. Sure enough a foe did come. Riding on the back of a cow with reigns in its mouth and a saddle on its back, a stout and pasty-green skinned Goblin rode to the bank of the river with a long metal pole in his hand. He wore archaic jean clothing with leather shoulder pads and boots added for extra protection means. The metal pole ended broadly at the upright end and crackled with electricity. He had round, crazed eyes and a gnarled, yellow smile of rows of crooked teeth.

"Well, tarnation" the Goblin said, leaning forward on his steed. "And here I'd reckoned that I'd done seen everything!"

"Who are you?" Jack asked. "Tell me please, where am I?"

"You ain't from 'round here, is ya?" the Goblin said, his one eye spinning around Jack. "This here's the field below the Gorge! This here's where all the cattle'r raised up and herded away to be made inta meat fer the villagers. I'm more of a sod man muhself..." The Goblin dismounted his cow and fell into the river, his metal staff held above the running surface and his boots covering his short, rickety legs just enough to keep his legs dry. He reached down and took a chunk of mossy earth from under the water and, without hesitation or rational thought, he ate it noisily. Jack just looked at him with a curious degree of disgust.

"Please" Jack began, being as courteous as possible, "I simply wish to find a friend of mine who may already be in the Gorge. Can you point me to some place were I may get to a higher vantage?"

"Whut?" the Goblin said, his mouth dripping with muddy crud. Jack sighed and thought of rephrasing himself, as he often had to in such a time of ineloquence.

"A lift up top?" Jack said, pointing up. The Goblin nodded and threw his arm, beckoning Jack to follow. Jack grinned and walked after him, abandoning his hope of remaining hygienic as he entered the field once more.

"A lot of folks come 'round here" the Goblin explained as he set himself up to leap onto his steed "just lookin' fer some way out. It's hard to tell sometimes. This fog here c'n roll right in any time and trick a man. I'm the only one who knows his way 'round the field by touch and smell 'lone."

"You can smell your way through the field?" Jack said. The Goblin, with but the stringy muscles and latent strength in his thin, sticky legs, made a flying leap up onto his cattle, nearly vaulting over it entirely had he not caught himself on the foot loops of his saddle. With a click of his tongue against his gnarly teeth the cow turned around and he began to lead Jack through the mist and crowd of cattle. His staff functioned as a prod to move cattle along, giving them a light zap and forcing them to pick up their hooves and move away. Jack watched his feet, dodging the piles where they lay, doing his best not to step on anymore than he absolutely had to.

"A lots o' Goblins" the guide began "look down on me fer mah job. Get it? HEHEHE!!! Look down! Cause I'm at the bottom of the Gorge!"

"Herding cattle is no simple task" Jack said. "Not when it is done by hand, that is. Not the way I've performed it before."

"Yeah, maybe" the Goblin said. He picked his toes with his long, yellow finger nails, keeping his cattle-prod rod balanced expertly on his nose. "These sumbitches don't wanna move 'long sometimes, so I have to raise the shock on the taser, though. Smells like smoked beef sometimes, tell you what!" Jack grinned awkwardly and tried to squint through the fog and mist of the flat river-bed valley to see if the way was close to ending yet. The cows were in his way, and for the sake of graciousness and respect he didn't want to climb up on one to get a better vantage. He looked around at all the cattle, a humongous horde of them all around, and spotted a brand mark. He brushed it off until he saw the second and third and forth, **each one different from the others. **Obviously these cattle had been stolen and were used by the Goblins of the Gorge for their own greedy purposes.

"Whoops!" the Goblin shouted. Jack turned with a start to his startled noise and got smacked in the face with the end of the taser rod. The Goblin grabbed and a jarring jolt of electric submission racked Jack's body and completely paralyzed him. He fell into the Goblin's cow steed, smoking from his exposed skin and twitching occasionally, and the Goblin pulled him up by his hair knot with an impressively strong arm, glaring and sneering at him with wide, glowing eyes and a nasty, evil grin. "Gotcha, boy!" he said, throwing jack's body onto the back of his cow and giving it a whip to giddy-up. "Ain't no Samurai's gettin' through this here field!!" The farmer Goblin trotted away on his trusty hoofed steed with the universe's most wanted unconscious in tow...

* * *

Orcs and Goblins decked in solid metal armor, all brandishing some modified technological enhancement of a weapon went charging from the palace to the side of the ridge where the Scotsman's wife had made her way to her final foothold before her target. She was on the path along the face of the ridge and charging mercilessly for the King's refuge, his cavernous palace, with now two weapons and a dastardly scowl. The bridge she just crossed was swaying still from her charge and weighed down with the weight of many knocked out or dying bodies from the guards who tried to stop her rampage.

The fresh, new line of guards came in close to each other. The tall, muscular Orcs held long tower shields and short swords while the Goblins, lithe and agile, wielded short spears that stabbed out beyond the breaks in the shield wall and short swords that were held long in their short arms. They stood in a phalanx position, spearmen jutting their weapons from behind the tight shield formation, waiting with dread for the incoming runaway train of a woman to come barreling through.

All was quiet on the canyon walls. The company grew incredibly weary. All their attention was focused on the road ahead, the bend around the canyon wall where she was inevitably charging from. No one considered that the lofty, thick-bodied and tenacious woman was taking the high road, literally. The Scotsman's wife could be seen, if anyone would bother to look, climbing along the side of the cliff wall, jumping with strong arms pulling her around from oped window to window, from hole to hole, reaching the length of her body and more with quick, excited leaps.

"Can't believe this" she lowed, her sword in her mouth muting her speech. "Gotta sneak around like a snarky little kid...Kinda takes me back, though, to my first real escape. Ah, back when I was a wiery, spring-heeled lass, lean as cured ham, young and energetic. Ugh!" She grunted and landed on a ledge, her small feet just barely keeping her balance on the ledge that jutted just out as an awning for the window below it. "At least I'm strong as a married woman" she said proudly. "And more clever than any of those prawn-brained wee bastards'll ever be!"

She continued her run and sideways scaling all along the wall of the Gorge, stealthily making her way for the castle. She lost her grip and fell, catching herself in a small crack in the wall just meters above the ground, above the Goblin horde that rushed in from the castle as back up. She climbed down quietly and sought cover behind a dusty wall. An alley stretched out behind the wall like a cavern. She followed through it, staying close to a wall with her sword drawn and ready at her side, and made her way to the entrance of the lookout post tower that was hollowed out from the gorge wall. Two guards were still standing watch, but in the end her strength was brutally overpowering. She grabbed one, keeping his silent with a hand over his mouth, and stepped back. By the time the other guard noticed his partner's absence the Scotsman's wife had thrown him like a shotput and smashed the guards together. They tumbled over each other right to the edge of the cliff where one caught the other's leg while the latter had just barely nabbed the ledge of the cliff.

With a victorious pump of her arm she entered the cavern door to the tower. Her fighting quarters were narrow and her arms were large with power. She drew her sword and proceeded to stir up trouble by banging on everything metal that got in her way, clanging her way through the hall, picking up the wind to power her mighty, tremendous voice. The guards were called to attention by the racket, all those innocent and rookie troops that weren't fit enough for front-line duty, and confronted her with shaking knees in the middle of a torch-lit hallway. She sneered them down with her hands on her hips, standing haughty and strong over them like a proud storm shadow about to rain down pain on a barren, dead landscape and scoffed with pity.

"You can go ahead and run" she said "so long as you tell your shrimpy king that I'm coming for him. These halls'll be stained with the stench of a thousand Goblin haggis by the time I'm done in here, I can guarantee ya that! Now go on, rung, flee, or I'll grind up your bones for me homemade dough and bake your innards into a pie! **I'll waste no part of you in making me breakfast and I'll eat your wives and children for lunch!!!**" And with that the guards promptly left, knees shaking and pants wet. She sighed and shook her head with disappointed clicks from her tongue. "Of course I wouldn't do that" she said in astonishment. "That's just downright dark! Gothic, even! I'm a lady, for goodness sake." So she walked, swinging her sword around and sheathing it as she strutted down the halls, in casual search for casualties, on her way for a forced audience with the king.

Finally, of these players, Seth was the last to arrive, and came past the huge burnt mark in the ground where the Scotsman had vanquished his monstrous foe earlier at the use of his firebrand. He knew he was in the right direction but carried on with dread. It only meant that Jack had gone astray without purpose.

"This can't be good" Seth said. "And who knows what kind of trouble the Scotsman's gotten into trying to rescue his wife already? Well, I'm sure he can handle himself. And so can Jack. All I can do is offer support where I'm needed." So Seth carried on in a wild, powerful dash , keeping his hand near the hilt of his sword and the Gem of lightning in his coat and at the ready. He was prepared to enter a battle, little knowing that he was about to intrude on a warzone...


	25. Episode 25

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXV. Battle at Goblin Gorge

* * *

Jack wasn't so out of his element that he wasn't used to waking up after a sudden, unexpected loss of consciousness to find himself in an entirely unknown place under the guard of greatly suspicious circumstances. The Goblin farmer was perched atop his cow steed with his crackling tazer rod hung over his shoulders, rocking back and forth, humming a song.

"Oh, when I get paid" he sang "I'm gonna get me a robot wife who never complains bout the smell of my feeeeet...cause she'll have no nose..." Jack silently rose to his feet in a low crouch, still feeling tingly and on edge form his climb out of unconsciousness. He reached for his sword, but of course, it was gone, and he spotted it swinging in the grip of the cow's curled tail. The blade and the sheathe were both coiled by the same tail, dirty and lean from its swatting motions, as it swung back and forth in front of him, just within reach but still unattainable. The Goblin kept on singing with his guard down while Jack plotted. He stroked his chin and pondered his solution, just within his grasp, but was stunned suddenly when the cow, who he was right behind, farted loudly. Jack held his breath and tried to escape but turned and finally noticed the cell he was in.

They were in a lift, a compact compartment for transporting cattle, at most four at a time so they still had the room to move and eat the shallow feed trough for their last-minute fill on the way up to the butchery. Jack did his best to retreat from the smell without making his presence known, but eventually the stink reached the Goblin rider as well, and he looked back. Jack took his mind into a meditative state and fell silent in a lull of suspended animation, right back into the pose the Goblin had left him in before.

"Hooo-EE!!" the Goblin shouted, waving his hand in front of his face. "Girl, you eat entirely too much o' that sod down there! You'd better cut back from now on, y'hear?" The cow mooed. The lift finally reached the top level and opened the gate in front. The Goblin hooked Jack by his robe collar with the long hook of his tazer rod and dragged him behind the cow as they both trod out onto the empty slaughterhouse floor. The shop was crafted from sterile, dead dirt. Not a single living thing was in the cave walls, literally on some more busy days. Huge cutting tools wielded by the Orcs and stronger bounty hunters were hung on the wall while the more precise, careful cutting knives and butchery charts were laid across a table high enough for Goblins to work at. Jack woke up just as the cow went across the rough slaughter floor. He was jostled awake by the bump a white skeleton protruding out from a pile of scrap bones, white and nicely cleaned, not yet transformed into any useful mass-produce tools.

"Now then" the Goblin said as he set his rod on a table, alerting Jack to his opportunity, "what's the best way to skin a samurai? I know how ta skin a cow, a cat, and a badger or two, but I ain't never heard of no proceedure to skin a man." Jack was suddenly up from the floor with a kick and stole his sword from the cow's strong grip with a kick on its rear. The cow lowed loudly and bucked. "What in Sam Hell?" The Goblin jumped from the frantic cow onto a table and met the bladed tip of Jack's blade staring him down at a distance.

"Do not move" Jack said. "I will not benefit you with more than one warning." Jack's voice was low, threatening, and incredibly serious. The Goblin glanced around and picked out a skewer that hung on the wall by a leather strap. He held it like a sword and blocked Jack's initial attack.

"Don't act all cock-a-doodle-doo like the rooster of the hen-house, son" the Goblin warned. "Don'chyou know I got toes what can crush a walnut?" He slipped his big, green foot with his hairy, big toes out from his leather boot and grabbed his tazer rod beside him while defending Jack's blade with the thick metal skewer. He handled the unbalanced rod with perfect control and spun the crackling tip in Jack's direction. Jack dodged it with a far lean back and stepped away, tripping over the bones behind him and staggering back until he caught his balance again. The Goblin had his weapons in both hands now and reached his strong foot back to the wall for a carving knife. He gripped it between his toes and grinned evilly. Jack prepared to block it. The Goblin threw the knife with a powerful kick of his leg and the knife flew right past Jack, grazing his cheek and cutting the slightest amount of blood out. Jack was amazed. Not only was he kept at a distance, but he couldn't fight back. He looked to the bone pile and grabbed a handful of bones to throw.

First he muttered a silent sacred prayer, then he tossed them. The Goblin was forced off his table and onto another soaked with dried blood. Jack rushed in, holding a ribcage in his offhand and prepared to attack. The Goblin jabbed his tazer at Jack to keep him at bay. Jack threw the ribcage into the crackling band of electricity and silenced it momentarily. The Goblin stabbed at Jack with the skewer only to get out-moved. Jack slid his blade up along the long, slender metal of the skewer and ran in with it, using the sliding as a guide to get into range for a solid palm blow to the Goblin's pot belly.

"What wus that fer?" he asked as he slumped over, unconscious. Jack stepped back and sheathed his sword.

"Even I can be merciful" Jack said "to my captors. They are all, in a way, the same to me, worth the pity of a warrior." Jack looked down the butchery and began to run down the wide, long hall where the cow had stampeded. In no time he emerged from an alley, right behind the cow, with a sign bearing the picture of meat hanging by chains overhead. An explosion shook the walls of the canyon and the sign fell. Jack took his sword and closed his eyes, slicing the sign in half and sheathing his sword in a single, beautifully fluid movement. The sign landed on either side and blew up dust as it slapped down to the flat Earthen dirt.

"Hey!" a voice called, alerting Jack to its presence with a glance. A bounty hunter, still smoking from the Scotsman's charring blast, had just climbed up to the level of the cliff and was pointing an eagerly shaking finger Jack's way. "It's him! It's Jack! It's Samurai 'Payday' Jack!" Jack's eyes opened wide in surprise. He began to run away while the bounty hunters behind him continued to scale the cliff and run haggardly after him, like wolves after a fleeing piece of meat...

* * *

Seth had decided, on a whim, to aid the Scotsman before searching for Jack. He watched from a distance and planned, keeping the brilliant spark of intellect in the back of his mind should he suddenly need to throw out some lightning. The Scotsman, despite his fatigue, was holding out greatly, swinging his sword for both defense and offense, throwing balls of fire and punching the flares around his fist into the ground to emit a fiery shock-wave that burnt the ground beneath him.

"He's amazingly great with that" Seth noted. "He handles the righteous fury of emotion like a natural. I just thought he was full of bluster and hate, but all the hot air he spouts seems to be of good use to him! I just hope, physically, he can keep going....in the meantime..." Seth brought the Gem of lightning he kept to his eye. A beam shined brightly out and focused itself in the Scotsman's direction. Another beam, weaker and dimmer, pointed above the Scotsman and slightly to the side, near the huge structure carved into the face of the cave. Seth pocketed the Gem again and stared off in that direction.

"There's a Gem in there!" Seth said. "I knew it! They're harnessing a natural power from one of the Gems to protect themselves! And it must be in there! I guess, no matter what course of action I decide upon, I'm going to the Scotsman. I may as well help while I can." Seth jumped down from his cover and started running for the ranks of the battle near the weary Scotsman. He was finally fighting with the very last of his strength, teetering on the final rope in his reserve of energy. He propped himself against his sword, the ground around him burning, while his main opponent with the long, mandrill face and cover of leaves and moss walked ever closer to him.

"You're in guff now, ladd'a" he said in his nigh unintelligible accent. The Scotsman looked up with a tired malice at his foe. His shalelie was poised high over his head. He was stepping in to deliver a powerful, skull crushing blow on the Scotsman's head. His eyes were glowing white with rage. The Scotsman fell on his back and avoided the blow which nailed his sword deep into the blasted ground.

"I cannay" he said, breathless, gazing up at the blue sky. He reached out with his large, thick arm only to have it fall back onto his chest. "Me bonny lass" he said, "tis a cruel fate to die without having seen your pretty, smiling face one last time. I'd give me life, if it weren't taken now, just to see you safe agin...."

"What're yu cryin aboot naow?" the druid said, leaning over the Scotsman's defeated body. He passed out, his brow still furrowed and his spirit all but extinguished from the embers he had fought on for so long. "I needn't to understand you no more, vile fiend! I end yoo!" He rose his club up high again and swung it down hard. He missed. Though he was sure his arm had sailed right past his head and that his heavy weapon should have followed, he saw no injury had befallen the Scotsman's powerful brow. Upon a closer inspection, he also saw no hand at the end of his arm. The freshly cut stub of his arm began to regrow vines from within his bark-colored vessels, harnessing the power of nature to reconstruct him.

"What was that? Whoo did that!?" He turned around rapidly and saw a man in a billowing black coat with a stream of slick silver flowing from his head. Seth glared over his shoulder and slammed his sword against its sheathe, fully drawing it in. At that bell sound the druid's body was blasted apart into wooden chunks. Only his head was left intact fully as it thumped to the ground, hollow and wooden.

"Huh" he said. "Well, that's a ringer, ain'tit?" Seth turned around with a throw of his coattails to the side and placed his left hand on the hilt of his long sword.

"Come on" Seth said, drawing his sword out with a flash of light and slicing whip of wind. "You want a challenge? I'll oblige! Come at me!"

"We don't want a challenge" a bounty robot declared.

"Just money" another hunter said.

"Let's drag that bastard's body in!" another called, referring to the Scotsman. Seth's eyebrow twitched and his mouth curled up in an agitated grimace. They had just got their hands around the Scotsman's body when Seth shouted out.

"Hey! I'm here now, you jackasses! Fight me!" Seth dashed forward, his hair a misty blur, and cut all their hands off in a single, fluid slice. The robots just let new weapon hands replace the claws and hooks that had been sliced, but two or three bounty hunters retreated with bleeding arms tucked under their armpits, screaming in pain as they ran in fear. Seth's eyes narrowed to fine points, sharp as hawk eyes, steeled with a shine of combative resolve. He attacked the robots and drove them away from the Scotsman's body. One robot, with a plain boxy frame and bending limbs, drew out two automatic gun-hands and fired at Seth. The others did the same and Seth found himself under a hail of gunfire. He gripped his sword tightly in both hands and began slashing the bullets from the air, a simple task for him complicated only by the body of a friend behind who prevented him from deflecting in all directions at once. The guns finally emptied and, before the first robot could draw out its blades to replace the guns, Seth was upon it.

His body twisted and threw itself with each slash of his sword as he cleanly cleaved the robot to pieces. Then, as the thing crackled and sparked, about to ignite and explode, Seth jumped away and stabbed his sword down through the head of the nearest robot, reaching the tip of the blade all the way to the ground where the stray death-throes of electricity were routed. The robot corpse collapsed once Seth's sword was withdrawn to his grip and he went on to continue his fight. The next two robots, with spherical joints and smoother chassis', charged upon Seth with rapidly moving blades attached to gyro wrists. Seth blocked them and stepped away, little knowing how close to the shelf of the cliff the robots were forcing him.

As he fended off the bounty robots the Scotsman woke up and rubbed his head with a tired, dry groan. "Ach, me head" he said. "I feel like I've been tackled by a boulder-golem. What happened?" The Scotsman looked around at the familiar terrain and noticed all that Seth had done to help defend him. He propped himself up against his own sword and turned around to see Seth still fighting the robots near the dangerously steep drop. "Ah, criminy! Watch out, girly-head!"

Seth was startled by the Scotsman's voice but reacted just as well. He let the robot blades press down on his and pushed them away with a jump. Then, bringing his sword around his body, he delivered two powerful slashes that cut both robots in half, then dashed between them and sheathed his sword to the hilt with a click. The robots fell to pieces off the cliff and their internal fuses blew out all at once. Seth looked back and saw the remains of the druid snaking their way off the cliff face, hugging the rock wall, in retreat.

"Thanks" Seth said as he approached the Scotsman. He nodded and put a hand up to the air.

"Don't think anyone owes anyone any favors, now" the Scotsman said. "I've still got a duty here, and by Golly, I'm aiming to see through with it."

"Good man" Seth said. "Where do you suspect your wife is now?" The Scotsman jerked and wrenched his sword until it was out of the ground and sheathed it on his back holster.

"If I know her" the Scotsman said "I'm willing to bet she's bein held prisoner in the highest tower of the main palace! That thing, right there!" He pointed up to the concave curve of windows that acted as the palace watchtower, not knowing just how close he really was.

"Let's go then" Seth said. "According to my Gem, the source of the Goblins power over nature is in there as well!"

"Two birds with one ballista!" the Scotsman shouted. "Perfect! I'll find me bonny lass, you steal their Gem of power, and we'll meet up to find Jack if he doesn't find us first."

"I get the feeling he'll be right behind us somewhere up the road" Seth said. He and the Scotsman began their run, a straight run for the castle gates where the Orcs, Goblins and other unsightly guards of the palace had gathered to prevent just them from entering. In a moment of genius tactical enlightenment, Seth pulled out his Gem and gathered a tight, crackling cloud of leaping sparks around his clenched fist.

"**Thundara!**" he shouted. He punched and let fly a wide netting of lightning that arced and jumped form guard to guard, riding the metal of their armor like a current to debilitate the entire line. He and his ally withheld their triumph and praise and ran over the smoldering bodies into the palace gates...

* * *

Deep within the winding corridors, earthen halls and rooms and passages of the great Goblin Palace, the Goblin King in all his wonder, royalty and power, knelt before a greater power. In the innermost sanctum of the great, winding caves that nature had carved, an ancient structure of great marble columns grown over with moss and crystal-clear water trickling through the tubes in the cave walls sat with a regal, crisp air. These pure ivory columns stood all in a circle around a pedestal of light-blue crystal which sat under a marble and granite arch carved with hieroglyphs obscured by growth. A healthy green glow shone out from the walls where the moss and flowers had grown out of the pure, holy water alone. On that pedestal in the middle of the sanctuary was a Gem, round and perfect with a swirling, earthen cloud of dirt-brown and desert gold.

It shined its radiating rays out in all directions, illuminating the cave with the light of the sun, empowering the growth of life and the miracles of creation to converge upon in. It called out in an earthen silence to the dirt and the rocks and all around it to grow and be fruitful. It gave the Goblins the land they had, keeping the shelves of the cliff-face from crumbling under their weight despite their incredible efforts to build inside the solid rock instead. It gave them a bountiful river and the growth of life to support the herds of cattle. This was the source of the King's greatness, his power and his influence. A treasure stolen long ago and put to use for the benefit of his people, the Gem of Earth!

And now that King rose and slowly opened his eyes.

"So you've arrived" he said. He turned around and drew out his sword, just as tall as he, solid gold from tip to hilt, wrapped in exotic silken ropes to suit his grip and as wide as his crooked, wrinkled green nose. The Scotsman's Wife stood in the opening of the chamber, a curtain-hung door arched from within with marble engravings, and looked around with a whistle.

"Right spiffy place, you've got here" she said. "Wouldn't mind meeting your decorator. Could use a tip or two from them to spruce up me own home like this, all Greek and whatnot."

"Enough pleasantry!" the King bellowed in his booming tenor. "You are here for me, are you not?"

"Ah, calm down" she said, drawing her sword which was dented and scratched from her fighting through the palace guards. "Of course I'm here for that. And _that_, while I'm at it." She pointed past him to the pedestal where the Gem was shining brightly. The King turned with a nasty leer and a malicious grin, holding up his sword in a show of pure strength over his head. "It looks nice, alright. I could use it in a necklace or a bracelet; any kind of jewel will be an improvement over the crusty old relics and statues cared by forest madmen we've got hanging about in our den!" The King grunted and lunged at her. His speed, power, agility, direction, control; all were fit for his title. She defended as best as she could and heard her sword begin to break under the King's constant force. He was a short, little green man and had to jump and spin twice in the air before delivering a powerful enough blow.

She kept herself light and danced around, retreating from him, keeping up her guard against the heavy royal blade. She caught him on a heavy swing and swung him against the wall where he planted his feet, crouched his tiny but powerful legs and sprang at her with his sword aimed straight, like a razor-sharp missile. She jumped out of the way, into the water, and felt a cooling calmness overtake her. She shook her head and walked back up onto dry land where her temper was dried and heated with her hot battle mood. She was aggressive now and started swinging with all her might, like swatting a fly with the thin, vulnerable blade in her hand. The King landed and made a powerful running-start uppercut slash which shattered her blade into shards. She stepped back, looking around for a replacement, but found nothing and was forced to stare down, far down, the golden edge of the King's sword.

"Now do you see" he asked "the difference in our power?" She didn't care for his gloating and kicked the sword out of his hands. As heavy as it was, her foot was heavier and her body was more powerful than his grip. The sword fell against the ground where its owner and King had been, and she pinned him up against the wall with one arm while winding up a punch with the other.

"Yes" she said "I do!" The King winced and shut his eyes. She drove her fist forward and punched hard.


	26. Episode 26

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXVI. Seth and the Shadow Men

* * *

Jack had run out of space to run. He faced a steep climb at his front with a constant rush of bounty hunters at his back. He had been in this scenario many times before, and he knew what to do. He turned with his blade drawn, aimed down the center line of his body to the oncoming horde of enemies, and he analyzed his environment. To his left was the chasm bordered by a frail wooden railing. There was little to strategize in that direction. Behind him was a firm wall with many holes, footholds and rugged folds of rock layers. Jack knew how he could use that. To his right was another solid wall with small houses built into the rock, and a far height above that was another sheer edge of a walking path across the face of the chasm cliff.

All around him he saw the possibilities for combat. He gathered knowledge with the same speed that his sword would cut with. He understood all of his routes and capabilities before the first hunter was upon him. A round man with a simple jetpack and iron-braced knuckles on his thick leather gloves. His thick beard bore his wild, yellow-toothed grin under all the ragged, dry orange fuzz. His black-bagged eyes flashed with intensity as he ripped the cord on his jetpack and rocketed forward.

"HEEERE IIIII COOOOME!!!" He roared. Jack lowered his blade and his eyelids, apathetic and uninterested. He opened his left palm and raised it in front of his body. The bounty hunter continued blasting forth with his mad smile and wound up a punch. "I'm gonna PUNCH YOOOUUUU!!!!" Jack waited in perfect stoic patience. The bounty hunter delivered his rocket-propelled punch. The hand traveled fast, right into Jack's palm, which curled up around it as it traveled. Jack's arm bent back, his face and body unflinching, and then extended out to the side, throwing the bounty hunter's fist and all that followed it spiraling down the gorge.

"I didn't mean iiiiiiiiitttt....." the bounty hunter cried as his voice disappeared. The rest of the company held their distance from Jack as he took his sword up once more, holding it upright at his side and stepping in.

"He's just one guy!" a large-jawed hunter said. "We're a whole damn army, and he's just one simple little guy! There's no way we can't beat him!"

"Are you stupid!?" another hunter called out. "That's Samurai Jack, you idiot! He _is_ an army!"

"Whatever!" the large-jawed man shouted. "Attack at will!" A line of bounty hunters armed with rifles stepped to the front lines. Jack recognized the guns in an instant. The long barrels with wide round openings, the loading cartridge, the aiming sight; they were net cannons. They all fired a wall of steel-wired netting at Jack. Jack jumped backwards onto the wall, gripped a stone above him and jumped up over the nets, right into a fray of hunters who charged after the nets to capture him. Jack threw himself backwards with a powerful slash and sent several hunters stumbling away with cuts across their armored or robotic chests.

Jack turned around and blocked a man's huge iron fists. He punched and smashed down at Jack with his long, strong arms. Jack blocked the fists, guiding their weight into the ground as he led the heavy fighter closer to the empty ledge. With a slash to power the man's fist into the ground he leaped up, ran along his arm, stomped on his face and kicked the back of his head to send him over the edge as well.

"I don't think so!" the iron-fisted hunter shouted. He uncurled his fist with a hydraulic hiss and grabbed the ledge, his other fist dangling down and weighing all of his weight on his clutching iron fingers. Jack landed up top and saw himself cornered against the very ledge he was utilizing. He looked back, then doubled to the line of encroaching hunters, some cocking their net guns again and grinning wildly. Jack tensed his legs and crouched down, prepared to jump once more. The netgunners aimed up and fired their nets over his head. Jack grinned. He hadn't moved. He dashed forward, low to the ground, and rammed his shoulder upwards into a taller man's gut, sending him backwards. He stabbed his sword blindly to the side and clipped the gas tank of a hunter's jetpack. A hissing squeal of gas followed and Jack retreated. He climbed up the stunned man he had just rammed and jumped off of his shoulder just as the jetpack exploded.

He landed in a defensive pose and waited as a round-bodied creature was charging him with stubby clawed arms. It slashed down at Jack in frantic twists of its big body. Jack stood up, still blocking the attacks, and kicked him in the side just as he turned, forcing him to turn fully around. Jack slashed at what looked like a zipper and the creature suddenly deflated. A hunter got tangled up in the groaning balloon animal and fell under its rubber weight. Jack began climbing up the rugged wall behind him to escape but was caught by a rabid-looking tribal baboon robot with extending arms.

"REVENGE!!!" he shouted. He ripped Jack from the wall and slammed him into the ground. Jack shook off the hand, losing some of the cloth from his robe in the struggle to get free and suffering minor scratches from the metal claws that had grabbed him. The baboon robot certainly had similarity to a hunter from Jack's past, another monkey-robot that hooted and pounded its arms against the ground as it threw its extending claw Jack's way. He did remember dispatching it, and rose up to meet the formal challenge of its apparent relative. "I see you remember, don't you! I am Ook-Ook Mulligan! You killed my brother, Eek-Eek Gilligan!" Jack stood ready for the moment after. He was determined to keep his guard up but more pressingly he was planning his retreat. He still had to run. Even with his strength, he couldn't defeat all the bounty hunters and still be any good to help his friends. Finally, Ook-Ook pounced.

"PREPARE TO DIE!!!!" The mechanical monster leaped and swept its slashing claws down from the air, Jack held him back with a high block. Ook's arms grabbed the ground and he kicked with his metal claws, swinging his body back and forth as Jack was pushed against the rock wall. Jack grit his teeth in pain and preparation, knowing what would come next. A robotic extending punch with him against the solid wall, pressing him into the rock with a monkey screech.

* * *

Seth had his sword drawn with the bloody edge dripping red onto the floor. He had made his way through the corridors under relentless pursuit only to trap and corral them all in a wide open area within the palace. A ballroom he assumed by the earthen décor. All the guards that chased him were on the floor, hunched over themselves and bleeding, some of them not moving at all. Seth all the while clutched the lightning Gem in his right hand, working his blade with only his dominant left. He glared around in victory and suddenly rushed out of the room.

"Not in there" Seth said. He held the Gem up to his face and walked into the light. Two shining trails were emitted. One was from the Scotsman, obviously, as it was moving even as Seth was moving somewhere just beyond the thick stone walls. The other trail was brighter than before, closer by, and pointed to solid walls at Seth's right. "I can't just keep checking room after room until I find it, can I? That's not practical. I need to find some kind of passage where a Gem would be hidden. I need to think like a Goblin to understand where to go...." Seth stopped in the middle of a wide foyer, not knowing that he was surrounded by slinking, lanky shadows of men. Seth turned his gaze for the staircase in the middle of the most regally carved wall. It led up to the second floor of the main entrance where he stood, and all the doors therein diverged into more halls, tunnels and ways to lead to his eventual destination.

"I'm going to guess" Seth said "that I'm heading for the throne room, right?" He turned around and looked at the sandy stone pillars behind him supporting the walkways of the upper floor. He had expected an answer for a bit, then clutched his Gem and made a run for the stairs. As he ran the shadow-men encroached. Their feet fell with the silence of cat's paws on the ground. Their presence was less than a spider's silken strand that hung overhead and their lethal intent was thicker than any venom. Assassins in all black suits and gear, leather-belted gauntlets with sharp knife claws and metal zipper masks. They ran in perfect step with Seth, keeping his fast pace without a single sound as he ascended the stairs. They hid from sight and light alike when he turned the corners and slowly stalked him from behind the pillars along the balcony.

Seth hummed and paced slowly to see each door and each carving beside it, trying to read the arcane language of the Goblin hieroglyphs to find which door led to the throne room he sought. He moved all along the walkway, keeping his sword across his shoulder laxly and the Gem crackling in vain against his thick leather gloves, ever alert and on guard. He knew he was being followed. He could feel the danger breathing down his very neck. He stopped in front of a wide set of doors paneled in gold with silver drawings across them. He could tell immediately, by the symbol of the crown and swords crossed in a coat of arms, that this was the door to the throne of the Goblin King. He kicked in the doors and was met by the curious, startled expressions of two Orc guards. Seth swooped forward like a quicksilver shadow and, before the guards knew it, they had been stabbed right through their chests. Seth swung the blood from his blade in two deep, hard swings and sheathed it in the side-clip holster that held it to his belt.

He looked back. He saw the shadows move away. Suspicion turned to caution and he advanced in a quick jog. There was no cover in this boxed hallway, bordered with even dimensions in equal patterns of sandy yellow blocks. The assassins followed nonetheless, this time with their bladed fingers reaching out before them, and with a faster pace than what Seth was taking. They were moving in for the kill. Seth loosened his grip on the Gem and let it spark. He held it up in his hand, just within his view, and watched the arcing sparks inside of it gathering toward his face, reaching to zap him. Then, suddenly, they changed direction over his shoulder. A bladed hand was coming down with the leaping body and the stretching fabric of a mask with an open mouth behind it. Seth planted his foot in place and kicked his raised leg straight back, stopping the assassin with a solid plant in the gut and forcing a pained groaning shout from the silent man's mouth. His body rolled across the floor while his comrades shuffled on the tips of their fingers blades and soft-padded boots away from him, like animals trying to corner their kill, ignoring one of their own downed.

Seth simply glowered at them and stood in silence. He drew his blade out slowly and stowed his Gem in his pocket. Both hands were needed to fight with the proper combat prowess he needed. The assassin's continued to shuffle around and moved in with short scuttling dashes across the hallway. Seth kept his eyes fixed on his front and his mind guarding his back. The shadow garb of the assassins started to blur the ground and slight after images of their movement filled Seth's eyes. Soon the downed, slowed body of the man he had kicked so hard disappeared in a thick black mist, and all he could see was the darkness that they spread.

"_HKSHHHHHHHH!!!!!!_" Hiss a voice in the swirling, building darkness. Seth strained his eyes to see past the illusion and saw, slowly rising up from beneath the fog of black fabric and leather, a new foe. A much taller, longer-limbed, more dangerous and menacing creature with a suit full of silver zippers against thick leather. Its mask had three zippers, one opened up to the mouth of teeth filed down to grotesque fangs. The zipper holes across its eyes were still shut. Around its shoulders were spiked plumes of sharp-looking feathers and tendrils that bent limply behind its back. Its leather claws were within its gloves and chromatic glints shined out from the tips of the stretching fabric. Flowing around it was a billowing plumage of black, flaming fur from a cape that ran down its slim, snakelike back.

Once it stood fully erect on its spiked heels, it pointed at Seth and hissed once more, in a threatening, urgent way.

"_SHHHHNNN....RAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!_" At its order the minions shuffled at Seth, keeping low to the ground with their metal nails clacking softly on the stone floor.

"Woah!" Seth exclaimed. He retreated at full flight and sliced open the doors to the throne room. He was right, and now frantically searched for a way to follow the beam that guided him through the walls. He looked up with a start and saw them again. **They crawled along the ceiling like bugs, swarming overhead and hissing with chattering growls and hisses. **Seth was gravely shocked. His mind wasn't as fast as Jack's. He only knew the speed of his blade and made his way out into the middle of the room, away from all the obstacles and pillars that his enemies could surprise him from. With one hand wielding his long sword and the other filled with the brilliance of his mind, Seth prepared for battle. The tall leading figure floated in from the hallway and held, in its clawed fingers, **a midnight shade Gem**.

"_Speak.....no......more!"_ it hissed. Seth's Gem went dark, and despite his best efforts to curse he found that he was muted by entirely arcane means. His voice, and his magic were both gone, leaving him once again with only his sword. He decided to stow the Gem, use both hands on the hilt and make the best of his circumstances....

* * *

The Scotsman, after separating in the foyer from Seth, went up the stairs, to his left and started frantically searching every room he could find. Right now he was fighting just outside the armory, trying to coax those hiding within out for a fair, true fight. However, they were in the armory with a nearly limitless supply of arrows, stones and miscellaneous weapons to throw at him. They kept their distance and hid behind iron shields with loose grips each time he tried to attack, pushing away the scalding hot metal when he blasted his powerful flames their way.

"C'mon you lily-toed fruit-eaters!!!" he roared. "Get out here and FIGHT ME LIKE MEN!!!" The Goblins snickered at his heated remarks and dodged another fireball. It hit the deep-black charred mark on the wall where his others had exploded before. Yet again, the age and physical state of the burly old warrior caught up to him and his strenuous fighting was wearing him down. He panted and sweat, wiping his brow with his hot forearm, then went back to slashing the arrows, rocks and tin cans out of the air as fast as they flew at him. He took his organic knee to the ground and kicked his mechanical one up. A stand kicked down from the sides and a handle with a trigger appeared on the side. He gripped the handle and began firing powerful rounds into the walls where he knew the Goblins would be ducking away.

After the smoke cleared from his smoking barrel leg and the holes in the thick stone wall, he waited and listened to the silence. His leg reset itself and he stood on it, making a march into the armory to inspect his damage. The Goblins were dispatched easily enough. None to soon, as they both held unlit bombs in their hands. The Scotsman began searching calmly for a sign of secret passages or any kind of path that could be taken out of the room and into another that joined with it, but in his inspection he found nothing. He huffed and turned his anger to the door.

"Figures" he said. "I take my precious time with these little pansies in a room that don't even make sense to have and what do I get for it? A wast of time! A rotten block of moldy-old assed cheese. This ain't the worst thing but tis far from the best to finding me bonny lass. I need ta hurry!"

"You won't need to worry about her" one of the Goblins growled "when you're DEAD!" He had somehow survived just long enough to light the bomb and hold it up, right next to the **box of explosives** next to him. The Scotsman nearly froze up in shock. He managed to compose himself just long enough to run out of the room and down the hall away from the explosion and rushing shrapnel wave of sharp, deadly weapons that chased after him. He rounded a corner, exited to the main hall and slammed the door shut behind him. He was safe, somewhat, and braced against the door as the explosion rocked the walls and shook the door nearly off its hinges. Once it was all over he stood behind the door as it opened, hoping there would be no backdraft behind it. A cloud of smoke rolled out and marked the stone floor with black soot. The hallway had been decimated by the explosion with shaken floor bricks and charred black walls all around. The Scotsman whistled.

"That's a lotta boom!" he exclaimed. "Glad I didn't hit those earlier..." The Scotsman looked across the second floor of the foyer and saw the rushing of black-clad soldiers charging in for battle. He heard the sound of nearby thunder shake through the air and started a vigorous run in its direction. "That long-haired laddy's gonna get himself skewered by the end of the day, it's the truth!" The Scotsman ran as fast as he could, took a breathing break against the wall, then ran again, keeping a steady hand on his sword and his fire Gem clutched tightly in hand. He approached the backside of a caped, billowing creature in all black and roared at it. The demon clad in leather blackness turned its Gem to him and began its incantation hiss, but not before the Scotsman delivered a heroic, flaming punch to the demon's mouth, silencing its silence curse, filling its mouth with hot, righteous coals. Seth was hard at fighting off what looked like a brewing, billowing cloud of darkness with the rapid movements of his sword, desperately searching for an escape.

"Hold on, bucko!" the Scotsman called, unsheathing his sword. He backhanded one weak assassin away, slashed at another and headbutted one right to the ground. The master assassin struggled onto its feet and coughed out the dry, bloody coughs the Scotsman had heated in its throat.

"_Be.......blind......!"_ it commanded. A winding band of darkness stretched through the air for the Scotsman, aimed for his eyes, but a magical interference stopped the curse from reaching him. A fiery fist erupted from the air, a phantasmal muscular arm surrounded by flames clutched the snaking wire of darkness and broke it with a hard grip. The rope squealed out in pain and died into a black mist as the arm vanished into thin air behind the Scotsman's unknowing back. The demonic assassin was speechless and stunned. The Gem of curses had failed it and left the Scotsman free to swing his sword as hard as he wanted against the frail, thin leather armor of the assassins, breaking them and buckling their bodies over his broadsword blade.

"Hang on laddie!" he shouted as he cleared his way into Seth's range of whipping steel silver. Seth stopped and let their backs meet. The mist died down and hugged the ground. The assassins were still and glaring at them both. The leader rose and pointed them both down, roaring with a deep and hollow hiss.

"_**SHIIIIIN-RAAAAA!!!!!**"_ The assassins roared from under their masks and grew stronger, more primal, more wild. Visibly they were slouched, leaning forward, swinging their arms and twitching their heads while mentally they had been stripped of their humanity. Mindless wolves that encircled too strong goats strayed from the herd. That's all they thought.

"Looks like a pickle, eh?" the Scotsman said. Seth nodded. "Speak up, laddie, can't here you." Seth shook his head. He looked about, ever analyzing his environment for a route, an escape, anything good, and saw the throne. Surely there, of all places, he could find something with promise. His Gem was silent and dead but the Scotsman's still worked. The battle was to be played in favor of he who held fire in his manly grip.

* * *

Aku watched over all the world but one spot. The central screen in his wizard's lair of arcane secrecy and dark magic was full of fuzz. The only screen that was supposed to show Jack at all times, in all places, during all the events that perplexed the great dark one, it was blank. Devoid of life. Just earlier he had spotted him in the highlands of a distant, moorish land, then he was going through a swamp with an added stranger to his party, then he was surfing on rocks, now he was just plain gone. Each time Aku came back to check it was blank. Some mysterious force was blocking his view of Jack, and it made him livid. But as a leader he remained calm, letting his anger boil neatly under the surface while he glared and glowered at the screen to change.

"First" Aku began "was the ruining of that cursed Hikami island, and the stealing of its unknown, ancient power. Then he destroyed my entire electrical grid industry by somehow slaying the perpetual lightning storms in the north. Then I lost all contact with the desert area due to gravitational fluxes...Samurai, samurai, what are you after? Where are you going? Who are you with? What is your plan this time.....?"

"Master Aku?" a timid, weak voice called. Aku turned his behemoth self around to see a timid, mouse-bodied alien the height of a stout and stocky little man holding a feeble manilla folder of documents in his shaking hands.

"Speak!" Aku ordered.

"Yes sire!" the nervous clerk said. He opened the folder and leafed through the pages with a shaking grip. He pulled out a report file and skimmed through it with quick-moving eyes. "Uh, the mercenary you hired, Claude, is on the move. He gathered up his own private company of fighters and they are en route to an old, ruined city somewhere on the Fifth Continental Quarter."

"Why there!?" Aku demanded, leaning his colossal face in close. "I did not elect him the be the bearer of limitless wealth, under my unlimited legal protection, to go sightseeing! How certain is he that the Samurai will travel there when even I, the Almighty Aku, do not know his whereabouts!?"

"Uh...." the mousy man began. He shivered and shook and wrung his hands and the papers in him, forcing him to drop the folder and its contents down a long abysmal void. "Oh no!" he exclaimed. He looked up into Aku's impatiently glaring eye in horror. "I'm so sorry, sire! I didn't mean to do that! They slipped! I dropped them! I'm such a fool! I'm sorry! Have mercy upon me!"

"I think not!" Aku said. "**BEGONE!!!**" He leaned back and swept his hand swiftly over the air where the man stood. He was gone, replaced by a burnt mark in the ground and a wisp of smoke. Aku rubbed his fingers together and turned back to his screens, leaning back in a deep chair with an impatient smacking of his lips.

"Samurai, samurai" he lowed. "When will you die....?"


	27. Episode 27

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXVII. The Summoning

* * *

Jack ran across the ledge of the cliff with his hand gripped on the hilt of his sheathed sword, ducking arrows and leaping over javelin spears. The remnants of the royal palace guard that hadn't been downed in either siege of their castle were hurling weapons Jack's way in the desperate and vain attempt to stop a fourth intruder from entering their sacred cavern. Jack dodged the arrows, keeping his sprint with a winding, liquid form of cotton white and slashed through the incoming waves of wood and steel. He leaned away from tomahawks and back-flipped through the swerving disks and rocks thrown.

One Orc threw a push-cart full of food. The other guards, and Jack, stopped to watch it careen off the cliff and fall into the abyss, then they turned their gazes curiously to the one berserk guard.

"Oops" he said.

"What're you doing, man!?" a Goblin exclaimed. "That was our food!"

"You wanna be the one to pay for all that?" another said.

"Sorry" the disgraced guard said bashfully. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. I was just so swept up in throwing stuff at him that I just threw the next thing I touched and, well....." While the guards bickered, Jack slipped away into an open door that led into the watchtower. He closed and locked the door behind and waited for the hurried rushing of feet to pass by outside. He just heard the guards continue to bicker. He rolled his eyes and shook his head with a low chuckle and grin. He took two steps and was shot, just grazed by a bullet that fractured splinters of wood from the door and forced back to clutch his bleeding wound.

"Nice try" the sentry Goblin said with a leering grin, glowing yellow eyes shining from under a low-brimmed helmet and a suave, graveled voice. "We all know the trickery of Samurai Jack around here. Now listen good, my dirty dog, cause this talking head likes to bite!" He set down his lunch in the hall and walked forward, wringing his hands on the handle of his gun. Jack narrowed his eyes in fury against the enemy. The dark Goblin chuckled maliciously as he approached with the gun-barrel staring down Jack's face. "You know...." he began. A door swung open powerfully and smashed him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious and falling him forward.

"You got the lunch yet?" the other watchtower Goblin called. He spotted it steaming on the floor and picked it up. Then closed the tower door and ran back upstairs. Jack panted and tore off his sleeve. The utter surprise and the narrowness by which he escaped dying had shaken him, but he recovered. He tied his sleeve around his neck and resorted to stuffing the rest of his kimono top into his waist sash so it wouldn't get in the way. He ran through the halls, following the paths of unconscious, puncture-wounded bodies to the grand hall and ran up the stairs to take an immediate right, running all on the adrenaline of his escape and the pure intuition of his surroundings.

He found the open hallway, the skittering shadow men in their dark outfits, and of course the demonic leader with the billowing black cape. Jack inspected the scene, his sharp eyes for detail taking in the action from a strictly moral stand point. He had seen men who wore all black yet fought for the greater good. Men with evil appearance and angelic intention. These shadows of men that crawled around, and their startling demonic leader with the billowing presence of a monster, were not such men, as just beyond the plumage of the tallest-standing fiend Jack could see his friends fighting desperately against them. Jack's eyes narrowed with with the furrow of his brow and his warrior's spirit burned glaring lights into his eyes. Jack unsheathed his sword and dashed forward. The men guarding their leader turned and froze up as Jack stepped in and swung wide, sweeping his blade across their chests and opening them all in a single cleave. Dark mist hissed out from the bodies and their death screeches alerted the rest of the horde to his presence.

The leader turned and saw Jack's blade drawn back and his teeth grit tight. His eyes were wide and wild and his hair broke out from its tie and erupted in billowing fire of silken darkness. He shouted and delivered a tremendous blow straight down. The demon blocked with its dark Gem and both were blown away.

"Jack!" the Scotsman shouted. The leader of the pack skid across the floor and recovered too close to the combat. The Scotsman instantly spotted it and rushed to it, delivering a powerful punch to its zipper-bound face. He stomped after the hissing, seething entity and snatched the dark, misty Gem from its long nailed claws. He then gripped it by its thin throat and pulled it up. "Who's the big-shot now, Mr. Long-Leather Stockings!?" The Scotsman picked the being up by its neck and threw it across the room and into the throne where it lazed its way with an unconscious groan into the seat. "That's one for the big boys, right, lads?" The Scotsman turned to see Seth overwhelmed and Jack fending off too many shadow men at once to handle. They were both crouched on one knee and defending desperately in all directions. Seth's long blade gave him a wider radius but made it harder to swing the sword around.

"Do not concern yourself..." Jack groaned. He pushed up with an uppercut follow-through and kicked a dark menace in its slinky abdomen area. He landed and slashed forward. He blocked to the right, turned and sliced the black mist from one's neck. He stabbed and slashed through another's gut and then jerked the pommel of his sword hilt into the leather-bound face of another assassin sneaking up behind. Jack regained control and went on kicking and cutting away to thin the huge horde that pressed at him fro mall directions. Seth meanwhile managed to grip his lightning Gem tightly and sparked it with his stored brilliant emotions. The binding spell that had silenced him was shattered, and with the unbinding pull of his lips and teeth from each other Seth screamed out a roar of power to command the flowing power of his mystic artifact!

"**Thunder!"** The blast of lightning arced from his hand into his sword and then through the thinly exposed metal claws of the men. A border of electrified, dancing bodies surrounded Seth just long enough for his expert Iai To sword-draw style to work as he made a lightning-fast slash of quicksilver and sent the entire circle of men flying through the air, leaking dust, landing as empty sacks on the open ground beyond the cautious horde.

"Well, you two've got it covered from here, it seems" the Scotsman said. He took the fire Gem from the hilt of his sword and threw it across the room to Jack who caught it in mid-jump as he moved to assist Seth. He landed, back to back with his warrior ally, and drew his sword up to his shoulder with both hands gripped and arms wound back. Seth grabbed his sword in its thin belt-loop sheathe and set his feet. The shadowy men were still circling them, approaching them, staying guarded and offensive. Yet none of them bothered to chase the Scotsman. He pondered why for a half a moment, then furrowed his brow and picked a shallow, movable looking section of the wall near the throne to run through. With a rushing charge he plowed his arm through the brick and mortar seal of the feeble cave support and was inside a long and winding cavern.

"Knew it was back here somewhere!" he shouted triumphantly. "Hang on, me bonny lass! I'm comiiiiin!!!" And so the Scotsman ran in the last visible leg of his nearly endless race towards his wife and victory....

* * *

"It seems their objective is not to stop us" Jack said, noting the Scotsman's unimpeded travel across the room full of shadowy men. The legion of hissing, growling, low-crawling assassins continued to encircle the swordsmen with their dark blurring movements crowding the floor with illusionary mist. Then they stopped. The space between them was much greater than it had seemed when they moved together. There were dozens of them, all sprawled and poised on the wide, open throne-room floor.

"Us, maybe" Seth said. "Him, I doubt it. They must have assumed that he would carry the Gem with him as he went, rather than trade it off to you."

"But he still holds one" Jack said. "The power it holds must be its immediate ward against their attack."

"Possible" Seth said. He stepped forward and forced the assassins before him to shuffle back and away. Jack gripped his sword tight and set it in his natural position, blade forward, tip up. The assassin's moved away in short, cautious steps. There was a lowing hiss echoing in the room along with a guttural clacking of teeth as mouths behind leather masks shook with growls. All was quiet for a moment. Jack slid his feet into position with a sudden scraping screech on the floor. Suddenly three or four men took flight with distant pounces and piercing howls. Jack crouched down and stabbed one from the air while Seth shot forward and began clearing his way through the briar patch of black, clawed bodies.

Three men landed behind Jack as the first he cut emptied of its internal dusty makings. Jack turned and swung away the impeding rush at his back, hitting only through the air. The men stayed a safe distance away and calmly encircled the samurai. Jack slid sharply to one side and the men countered by sliding the same way, away from him, continuing their circular pattern. Jack stopped and rushed at them. Two diverged and one was left to defend itself. Jack swung his sword down then up in a swift, fluid single swing. The assassin's claws were sliced cleanly apart, and then with a lunging stab Jack stabbed into its throat and carried a swing down, cleaving him in half.

A hiss caught his attention. Jack turned and blocked a sudden stab and sweep of parted metal claws as more men joined the fight, forming a tighter and tighter circle of moving darkness to corral the samurai in one place. Jack blocked two more slashing attacks and kicked the attacker away. Then he swung his sword behind him to block another attack. The claws caught his blade. Catching it over his shoulder Jack stepped forward and swung hard, cleaving apart the oppressing metal digits. With a quick spin and slash he decapitated the fiend. It let out a hollow dying hiss and fell as an empty, leather sack to the floor.

Seth's battle proceeded much more rapidly. He swung his long saber, slicing through multiple enemies with each grand silver stroke and advanced in turning steps each time. He held his sword powerfully with both hands to control its angle of descent and ascent, its sweeping width and its flashing lightning power. Seth all at once cleared an opening all around him with a spinning slash and held up the crackling Gem of lightning. His flash of brilliance sparked the magic of the Gem and blasted lightning from the small green sphere into his sword, giving it an otherworldly, divine glow. He made a strong slash which was chased by the shining color of pure white lightning and destroyed his enemies with but a touch of his electric blade.

"**Thunder!"** Seth evoked. His blade, with a heavy swing down, summoned the lightning within to arc straight up and then blast down all around him in powerful, crackling bolts of energy. It shocked and paralyzed all who surrounded him, allowing him to make quick work of their limp shell bodies as they continued to jolt and jump. Seth's long sword kept the men mostly at bay. Those that slithered across the ground, staying so low that their movements were purely reptilian in nature, were stomped by Seth's metal-sole boots to the ground and then broken at their necks with yet another strong kick. Others rushed right in when Seth was powering through a swing to bring his sword back to a powered position at his side to swing from. Seth spun with a slide of his feet and swung behind him, upwards, slicing down several mid-pounce assassins.

"This is going swimmingly well" Seth said. "We'll have this room cleared out in no time!" He kicked his foot high and planted it on the face of one such enemy, using him to vault his way onto the crowd and walk across them in careful hops, going from face to face. He ran that way back to Jack and aided him with a stab that went right beside his face and pierced the head of a leather-bound being. Seth drew his sword back just as Jack moved away from it and set himself back-to-back. They waited for the shadow men to stop moving in their hypnotically blurry patterns, around and around, obscuring all their view of the floor beneath them.

"I have a bad feeling" Jack said.

"What of?" Seth asked. "Obviously, we're going to win!"

"I would not be so certain of our victory" Jack said cautiously. "One must not count the crop before it is grown."

"Or count their chickens before they hatch?" Seth said, retiring Jack's ancient wit in place of a more modern substitute.

"Certainly" Jack said. The men stopped moving. There was space enough between them for them all to move, but not much more. It was obvious from what had been just a short time ago. **Somehow, they had multiplied!** Just their blurry maneuvering together had somehow caused them to grow additional soldiers into their ranks. ".....do you see?" Jack said. Seth's brow was furrowed flat and his mouth was stretched out against his cheeks in frustration.

"Well" Seth said, "that's a bit of a let-down."

"Do not fret, my friend" Jack said. "I believe the true key to our victory lies within our spirit."

"Lightning doesn't work" Seth said. He turned to Jack and saw that he was already holding between his fingers the brilliant red Gem of fire with a grin of assurance. "Fire's worth a try. As long as we can get them to burn right." Jack nodded and gripped the Gem tight in his hand. He felt a blazing, burning sensation accost him, a sudden force swelled his chest and caused his whole body to start burning. His hand wasn't the only thing which was soon surrounded by licking, spinning flames from an arcane stoke. He opened his hand to pure fire that whipped and roared around. Seth retreated from the overwhelming flame and ran into the tight guarding group of men that moved in on him without hesitance. He fought his best against them but was eventually grabbed and disarmed.

"JACK!" Seth shouted. He was turned around forcibly by the assassins and saw Jack burned in a pyre of his own magical creation. "JAAAAAACK!!!" Seth cried. Jack roared out flames. His skin turned red and his eyes into ashen black. His hair was thrown up in a vaporous climb. His sword cut the flames erupting out from below his feet and kept its magical properties as his form was warped by the magical fire from beyond...

* * *

In the cavernous, winding tunnels there was an abundance of combat to keep the Scotsman forced awake. He swung his sword with a powerful drag and limpness of his arm, jerking fully with his hips and back. His exhaustion had drained him of all his remaining fighting energy. He was running on fumes that he thought already vaporized. But his body could take it! Every part of him screamed to move and to fight, for just beyond these rugged rock walls was his bonny lass, the love of his life, the peach of his eyes from the highest boughs of the tree of life.....So he continued fighting the various druids and druidric creations they summoned up.

The earthen monsters made from moist rock with slobbering jaws and mangy, musty fur were grown out of the life of indigenous cave moss all around and sprung for the Scotsman. He just punched them away and they broke against the hard wall. The nature spells of the druids hit the Scotsman's manly chest and were broken instantly. Even as roots grew up around the Scotsman's legs he walked through them like they were nothing and cut the men down to size, slicing through their part-tree bodies and chopping them like timber.

"He's unstoppable!" one druid called in a panic.

"Does nothing work on him!?" another exclaimed. The Scotsman threw a man into the rock wall around a corner and threw his sword after him, impaling him into the hard stone, then kicked with his living leg to drive the sword in further, all the while torturing the man until he disassembled himself into leaves, wood and vines. The Scotsman then took his machine leg, propped his side up with the sword and cocked it to a different mode: Flamethrower mode. He blasted a steady stream of gaseous fire that forked down paths and rock corridors and filled all the conjunction halls with flames and heat. The druids were burnt to embers and sank away with their magics into the cracks in the floor and walls.

"I'm just nearly there, aren't I?" The Scotsman said hopefully. "I've gotta be! I've been walking an huffing me knees and feet up and off the ground since clear this morning!" He wiped the beading, thick sweat from his brow with his hairy arm. "I feel like me dogs have been walking since last Tuesday! Uuuaaaggh! Today isn't a great day to go on a quest!" He continued pulling himself along the rocky hallway, huffing and heaving his breath, mumbling dreary incoherence as his heavy arms drooped his body forward. He made a long shuffling walk down the hall and eventually stopped and fell full over onto his face amidst a light and fuzzy moss covering the floor.

"I can't take it no more!" he wheezed. "I'm.....plum tuckered! I can't even talk to breathe no more!" The Scotsman surrendered himself there and then. He turned himself over in the soft moss and lay with his arms stretched out, right in front of the final passage leading to a distant inner chamber of light and glory. As his senses began to fade, his eyes shut and his tongue dry up and his nose eventually close its canals, his ears suddenly perked and picked up the grunting sounds of fighting just beyond a silken veil hung precariously on the jagged edges of jutting rocks over a high-rising arch of stone. He heard the grunts of an obvious male with a deep, booming tenor voice followed by the growls and excited grunts of a higher, slightly more feminine voice.

"Insolent highlander warthog!" the deep, male voice shouted. "I shall force you into the witness of my superior skill and-NO! Not my ROBE! Not in THERE!!!"

"Take it, ya wee shrimpy bastard!!!" the woman roared. The Scotsman awoke instantly and sat up. "Ye'll be worrying least about where those robes go after _I_ get finished with ye!"

"That's me lass!" the Scotsman realized. He sprang up to his feet and clasped his hands lovingly together. "My darling little lamb! Me sweet-voiced siren of the hills! She's close by, close enough that I can smell her maidenly sweetness, like the fresh bubbling of a mountain spring and a baby-goat's first bleating breath calling me! Heralding me!"

"Hey!" the druids called, all their limbs replaced with tree growths, bulging bludgeons and sharp splintering blades from out of their thick, ritualistic robes. All poised for battle against the mighty Scotsman who hadn't noticed them yet. "Hey! Ugly! Hey, we're here to kill you now! Pay attention as we let your blood to grow our-"

"I'm coming, bonny lassie!!!" the Scotsman called as he ran through the thin veil and out of the druid's sight.

"Hey!" the same druid called. He stood down and lowered his head further into his hood shadow.

"I don't think he cares anymore" another druid said, placing his hand on his shoulder. "Let's just wait. He's bound to come out of there sooner or later. Besides, we can't visit that place twice or our powers will be revoked, remember."

"I know...." the druid said in dejection.

Meanwhile, the Scotsman's wife and the Goblin King continued their fight. He had thrown away his robes and was down to his most common regal attire, a golden-thread vest and white suit under with his royal-red wool tights and curled, emerald studded shoes. His crown stayed fixed to his head. His hands were flat and held out in front of his tiny body like blades extending from his wrists. The wife was for the better wear. It hadn't looked like she'd been in battle at all aside from her fussed and mussed head of hair and the reddening of her knuckles from punching the tiny king around the shallows of the enshrinement to the glowing yellow Gem.

"You are certainly formidable" the King said, "however, you are still no match for me at my full strength!"

"Oh really?" she said, rolling her word, head, neck and eyes. Her fists were brought with a huff to her hips. "Why don't you break out this 'full strength' of yours and we'll see how much taller you get, shrimpy!" The King chuckled and moved casually to the center podium where the Gem rested. He picked it up from its perch and gripped it hard in his big hand. His eyes started shining with the brilliance of glowing yellow garnets and his grin grew across his face from pointy ear to ear.

"I don't get taller..." the Goblin said as he rose his hand to the wall. Palm forward, he suddenly thrust his arm and loosened a rock from the cave wall. The rock levitated into his hand and compressed into itself, forming into a spiked ball with long, slender spikes protruding out at all odd angles. The Wife's confidence was quickly drained from her face and posture. Now it all became about not watching that mass of rough, jagged earthen matter come at her with an obviously lethal intent. "....but do trust me....this power of mine is a pinnacle of nature. **In here, I am invincible!**"

"**SHUT UP!!!" **The Scotsman shouted, punching forward his fist with a dark echo of a stagnant mist. The rock suddenly fell as a mound of shapeless clay and dirt and solid rock to the white-stone layered floor around the pedestal and the Gem dimmed down. The Goblin King's mouth was puckered into his mouth so much that it stretched the skin on his huge nose. The Scotsman's Wife turned to him in utter surprise. The Scotsman opened his fist and let drop from it then dark, mysterious curse Gem that he worked without realizing. "Me bonny lass" he said, extending his arms, "I missed you." His wife scoffed.

"It's barely been a day" she said with her arms crossed "and already you come searching for me like I'm some helpless little gazelle? I ain't any ordinary woman, y'know! If anything, you're the one I'd have to save nine times out of ten!"

"But that's why I came!" the Scotsman said, now talking calmly and dotingly, trying his best to defend with the cushy shield of his emotive tone. "I was wrecked when they carried you away! All I could do was watch it in the end! You know how badly you'd feel if the hall burned down and all you could do was stand and watch the smoke cloud up around you? That's how _I_ felt!"

"And what if the hall has burned down already?" she asked, neither concerning the small Goblin smashing the silenced Gem on the edge of his pedestal to try and force it to glimmer again. "What'll you do if you return to an above-ground cemetery, then?"

"I'll stand by you" the Scotsman said "for at least then I'll be with the one thing that brings me joy and rapture in a world burned to the ground..." His wife's charismatic stance was broken by his proclamation of love. She sank her arms down from her hips and stopped scowling, instead gave in to her feminine sway of emotion and smiled at him.

"Darling husband" she cooed.

"Sweet bonny lass" he replied. They ran together and kissed deeply. The Goblin King was frozen in a horrified shock at their over-saturated play on human emotion as they kissed their way to the ground in revelry. All the energy the Scotsman thought he had spent fighting had in fact been secretly saved, a reserve of energy enough to carry him into his life-love's arms. He had saved up, ironically, more than enough energy to fight his way back to the hall with, but kept it all for his sweet wife.

Their continuous display of amoration wasn't just noticed, though begrudgingly, by the Goblin. Some other force was awakened by their connection, the warmth of their emotions, and began to live through the darkness it had been cast into. The Gem of Earth was broken of its curse and hovered up into the air, right beyond the short Goblin's reach, and two sky-blue eyes opened up in the air before it as its yellow shine filled the form of a standing man manifest from the pure magic of the Gem itself....

* * *

Deep within a raging hellfire, a plane of pure heat and destructive natural fury, Jack stood shock still, staring in wonder at an ash-blackened sky. The smoke from the perpetual burn all around him, constantly reddening the earth beneath into a charcoal glow, covered the sky like a pitch-black shroud, yet kept the embers to glow in spots and speckles or red and orange. He looked all around and saw nothing but fire, even around his feet there was fire, and yet he felt no burning heat. The flares from the ground towered high up with dull, distant roars, though Jack stood right next to one, and coiled around his arm harmlessly. Jack looked at himself to make sure he was well. He felt well, no fever or chills at all, until he saw the hill of baked black earth before him. A nostalgic shock shook his spine.

_**Approach me**_ a voice demanded. Jack was stunned into action. He reached for his sword for safety but didn't find it. Upon inspection he found that his sword hadn't accompanied him into this strange world of hellish flames. Jack clenched his fists and walked forward, ascending a slope of smooth graveled ash, crumbled black gravel and solid cooled coals that formed the hill. He made his way up to its peak where it was flattened out and gazed upon a mighty brimstone throne. At its seat with a mighty figure with skin of glowing, flowing fiery lava and a halo of a long-bodied salamander with its own tail in its mouth.

"It is you!" Jack exclaimed as he pointed.

_**Indeed, Samurai, it is I. The one you know as Ifrit Dajeen. I am the spirit of fire taken arcane form within the Gem I had safeguarded all my immortal life. I continue to exist here, providing power to all those who call upon me with a righteous fury and a moral sense of height.**_

"So then" Jack began, "you have taken me into the Gem itself, to show me its true nature? To reveal to me its true power?" Ifrit sat, his exposed teeth beneath the rippling, liquid flames and his horns grew out of his head as great masts of blackened, ember-glowing earthen soot. Then he stirred and stood up on his powerful, thick draconic feet and legs.

_**You are indeed correct that I have pulled your spirit into this Gem. In doing so, I have prevented the time lapsed here from reflecting the time which carries on outside, where your body and sword lie. The truest nature of this Gem is something which is yet beyond your understanding, mortal, but I can reveal to you its truest power. The power of calling upon the arcane forces of nature to assist one in the fight against the evils of the world which oppress upon the diligent citizens striving for peace! I am one such force of nature, embodied in this form, sealed within the Gem as a source of unending fuel for the righteous fires of man to call up. You, Jack, are a man whose great sense of righteous morality has awakened my true function! At your command, Samurai Jack, my body shall exit this world and enter yours in a mystic fusion between the spirits of past, present and future!!!**_

Ifrit held out his powerful hand for Jack to take. Jack looked at it, a hand surrounded by the red flames that built up into a swelling mound in the demon's palm. He considered deeply the consequence of his action, still in the dark of information he needed to confirm all his notions against calling such a power to his aid. His hand slowly drifted into Ifrit's, but the flames still retreated from his skin.

"If your body is to assist me in my battle" Jack said "and our minds and souls are to fuse into a single, more powerful entity for a time, then I must ask of you a bargain. I shall release your full power on the terms that you will allow me the majority of control. I do not wish my friends to fall under any unintentional harm from your fighting powers." With that resolution strong in mind, the flames closed in Jack's hand and began to creep up his arm, surrounding and enshrouding him with the fires as Ifrit's body was drained into them.

_**I would have this pact no other way, gracious Samurai Jack....**_ And so the bond was formed, and in an instant Jack's mind returned to his body with an eruption of sudden power. The shadow men around him were blown into a dusty fog that was incinerated from the air in an instant. Leather began to tighten and melt on the masked faces around him and shadowy men went running through the crowd, shrieking in pain. Seth was knocked back as well and recovered a safe distance away to gaze on Jack with a wondrous awe.

No longer did a Samurai stand there but some arcane mix between a noble swordsman and a demon. The robes tied below him turned black with a fiery red stripe of cloth down the side. His skin was a deep shade of red with a bright glowing of pure orange heat surrounding him. With a growling breath the visible glow of heat dissipated and his body was in full reveal. From his face grew long fangs which curled up at the ends of each row, top and bottom, and from within that red-hot mouth a forked tongue flicked around. As he opened the jagged demon's maw a smoky cloud of embers in smoke hissed out from his throat. His hair was flowing up like a fire and from his forehead extended two thick, black horns that curled in crescents over the top reach of his hair's reach. His eyes were narrowly angled and filled with a white-hot glow of fury and rage.

His sword had transformed under Ifrit's influence as well. Now held in a tighter grip of his red-skinned hands his sword's handguard was a slow-moving fire that extended out in a rounded shape from the tightly-wrapped hilt. The blade had lengthened and became wider as well and seemed to glow with the intensity of a Titan's forge. The transformed Jack turned to Seth and let out an ashen growl.

"....Jack?" Seth said.

"**That Jack has departed for now**" the demon body said. "**This Jack is now known as _Oni Jack!_**" The shadow-men hissed at the demonic figure from all around. Seth was pushed aside as all the darkness encroached upon Jack's body at the same time. The Oni Jack turned to them and held his sword up. "**You know not what fires I've stoked for you....**" and with a single sweep of his sword, Oni Jack lit the room with a divine flood of flames that obliterated everything they consumed, even the stone columns and walls. Everything was baked black by the fire as Oni Jack stood with his sword in the floor, his palm on the pommel, watching his fires roar through white-hot eyes......


	28. Episode 28

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXVIII. The Guardian of the Earth Gem

* * *

The fiery demon stood in the center of the room, an aura of flames licking around his red skin. Oni Jack, a fusion between the magical fires of Ifrit and the natural power of Jack, the summoned being from the Gem of fire, was ready to continue his fighting. Seth stood in a state of awe at the monstrous fusion, neglecting to know that he was currently surrounded by the black-clad assassins. The hissing from their covered mouths alerted him to their presence once again and he was forced to rush away from them. He ran behind Oni Jack and stood at the border of sweeping flames that covered well over half of the throne room, scorching the royal marble floor and columns into a roasted black.

"Oni Jack" Seth called, "I'll leave the fighting up to you, if you wish."

"That would be wise" Oni Jack said. He gripped his sword and drew it up from the floor. The flames that made its blade stirred and roared around. A border of fire formed around the metal of the blade. Another wide, divine sweeping flame attack was being prepared, but the demonic horde of black bodies refused to endure another fierce, destructive attack.

The demons hissed and growled, lowering their stances to tense their muscles and prepare their pounces. The leading demon with its long, billowing black cape, rose up from the throne and hissed loudly. Its mouth zipper had been unzipped fully, revealing its wide row of gnarled teeth and the over-stretched corners of its mouth. It pointed down Oni Jack and screeched, prompting a sudden attack.

"**Pitiful"** Oni Jack growled. He swung his sword in a half-powered swing, stopping it in front of his body. An explosion occurred in the air and blew many of the black demons away, draining their broken bodies of black dust as they flew through the air. Jack spun his blade in his fingers, kicking up some lingering flames in the air. With his clawed, unarmed hand he wrung each finger and then formed a glowing orb of energy out of his palm. The ball picked up his surrounding, blazing flames and he held it up in plain sight for the demon leader to behold. **"I shall incinerate!"** Oni Jack declared.

The demon leader called its legion together with a loud and powerful hiss. All the still standing assassins crowded together around the throne to protect their leader, forming a wall of flimsy leather and bony bodies. Oni Jack huffed out a glowing cloud of smoke at their attempt of defense. Seth backed away from him, running along the side of the flickering fires that remained from his previous attack, and watched him act at a safe distance where the heat of fire couldn't reach him. Oni Jack took a wide step back and drew his sword back with it. He was preparing a thrust and aimed with his unarmed hand as it still held the blazing fireball just apart from his skin.

"**BURN!!!"** Oni Jack roared. He fired the fireball and blew apart the wall of uneffective soldiers, revealing the demon leader through a hole of black sand and soot. Oni Jack stomped forward and shot out a stabbing thrust. The fire from his blade gathered into a fine point at the tip of the sword and shot out like a laser, piercing through the demon's chest with a white-hot blazing trail of embers hanging after it in the air. The bright, dazzling effect of the attack had burst open the demon's chest and killed it instantly. It fell over onto its thin knees and then, upon falling onto its face, burst into a cloud of black sand. Oni Jack swung the residual flames from the sword and stabbed it into the floor in at his feet. Seth was still blinded by the bright flash of fire he had witnessed and shook the spots from his eyes.

"That was incredible!" Seth exclaimed. "Even though I moved further away I could still feel the heat of that attack!" Seth looked across the room and saw some weakly shuffling soldiers still remaining and lurching their way towards Oni Jack. Seth felt the necessity to spring into action, but he saw the demonic fusion of his friend refusing to move. He stood with his arms crossed and his fires blazing around him, not even watching the demons that lumbered toward him. One got as close as it could, but was burned into black dust before the demon. The others, regardless of how near they were, simply fell down and died. Without their leader, it seemed, the rest of the demons were incapable of fighting.

"Oni Jack" Seth called. "When can I expect Jack to return?" The demon turned to him and opened its fanged mouth to speak.

"My power is nearly exhausted here" he spoke. "Once my abilities to fight expire, I shall return to the form most befitting me. The power shall return to the Gem, and the body of Jack shall return to the proper plane as well. Until then..."

"Found something!" a voice shouted. Seth turned with a start to the entrance of the room, which still baked in moving patches of fire, and saw a bounty hunter entering with a group following him. "I think it's him! Come on!" The group of hunters had followed Jack into the castle and found him, but they didn't expect him to take the form he was currently in. They didn't expect to search for the samurai and find a demon, and so they charged in total ignorance, not expecting a thing when Jack turned around to reveal himself as Oni Jack.

"**This shall be my final attack, it seems"** Oni Jack declared. He took his sword and aimed the blade, still stuck into the floor, towards the rushing hunters. With a wide step forward, Oni Jack sliced his sword through the floor and swung it up with a blazing rush of flames flaring out from the scar in the ground. He then stepped back behind the cut he made and spun his sword around, stopping it at his waist as if to sheathe it. With his palm extended forward he gathered his energy and brought a sparking cloud of flares up from the cut in the floor. **"Fire Force! FLARE!!!"** At his commanding roar the fires shot out from the ground, erupted through the marble and stone tiles and a huge beam of pure heat and light exploded out. It surrounded each bounty hunter, burned through their armor, melted all the metal they wore and incinerated all traces of weaponry they held. The attack carried itself through the hallway and scorched the foyer of the castle with its baking flames.

When it was all over the bounty hunters were on the ground, all either broken into metal chunks or painfully groaning over the heat that had baked their skin to a smoking red. The fire around Oni Jack swirled around him in a sudden burst and vanished around the red fire Gem. It dropped down from the air and onto the floor before Jack's face. The samurai was exhausted, his body drained of its very life, and he fell onto his stomach, unconscious, while the fires nearby baked the floor into a charred, burned black...

* * *

In the chamber of the Earth Gem the Scotsman and his wife finally took a notice to the obnoxiously bright light coming from the room and stood up to face it.

"By golly" the Scotsman said in awe. "What is that?"

"Some knida fancy nightlight?" his wife said.

"That is power" the Goblin King groaned, clutched over himself in pain against the pedestal where the sacred Gem had rested. "That is the power that made me king....that protects our land against people like....you."

"Like me!?" the Scotsman exclaimed. "You tiny little bastard! You're the ones who attack me every couple o' weeks, and you're callin me the bad guys here?"

"You drove us from the marshes" the King said "so you could lay claim to them selfishly. What have you done to the marshes since we left but let them grow over and become wildly uninhabitable!?"

"It's my land!" the Scotsman bellowed. "I'll do with it what I want, where I want and how!"

"Oh, calm down you windbag" his wife said, giving him a pouty glare. "If that's what this is about just give em the land and seal it up from them. Why they've gotta be in a place like this for no other reason than your own stubborn ass-headedness just doesn't make enough sense to me!"

"Ah, don't be like that" the Scotsman said. "They know what they did."

"In our defense" the Goblin King began "you made the first move against us. After that it was a blind war, eye for an eye at every turn of events, you know. We only moved ourselves here when we had access to the power that let us survive, as well as the resources to thrive in such an uninhabitable place. Namely, this resource before you, this Earthen artifact of power that controls the flow of nature and the strength of rock! Using it we carved our homes from the solid stone of the chasm walls and lived well and safe, providing haven for any travelers so unfortunate as to find their way here through the blasted no-man's land just beyond here."

"So that's it, is it?" the Scotsman said. "You're just here because you got no place to go, or because you got no better place to defend yourselves from!?"

"Aku's armies are tenacious" the King said. "If we had a fortress anywhere else we would be demolished in the blink of an-"

"Hold the goat" the Scotsman said. He walked forward and was bombarded by the light.

"**I see and I hear!"** the light proclaimed in a great, charismatic tenor. **"The Earth speaks! Take my heed and witness my form!!!"** From the light of the Gem a great being came. A man standing tall and clothed only in a red loin cloth wrapped around his hips. His muscles were as defined and hard and heavy looking as if they'd been chiseled straight from a wall of pure rock. He flexed his arms as he came into the physical world with an upturned curl of his vain lips. He had a fresh young man's face and a head of sandy, wavy hair. All of him was of the earth, as this was the daemon guardian of the Gem of the Earth. The Scotsman stood staring at him for a long moment, as did his wife who seemed less than impressed with his stature.

"Who're you?" the Scotsman finally asked. The daemon personification stopped his flexing and slouched down. His face seemed more youthful with a childish grin and a wide arc of his eyebrows as he lowered it for the mortal's view.

"I'm the guardian of Earth" he said. "**Atless.** Not the same name as the ancient Titan, though. I was his apprentice, so I'm At-_less_....he thought it was appropriate. I guess it is. I don't mind it."

"So what are ya then?" the wife asked. Atless turned to her and took a calming breath. He then reached into his rock-solid chest with his hand and harmlessly pulled out the glowing yellow Gem from his body.

"I am this" he said. "I am the embodiment of Earthly powers. The strength of the earth, the power, the rugged structure; I am the Earth daemon who guards all of its power, the living source of this Gem's infinite magical power."

"That must be the same kind of Gem" the Scotsman pointed out "that Jack and his long-haired pal are searching for! One like this!" The Scotsman pulled out his dark Gem and showed it to the tall, strong titan of a man. Atless turned to it and looked deep into it, seeing something deep within its dark, misty interior staring back at him. "What kinda power is in this one, you think?" Atless took it and examined it closer. Binds of darkness slithered out of the Gem and along his fingers, trying to wrap around his thick, powerful muscles, but ultimately they failed and were torn by his sheer aura of power and retreated back within the Gem.

"Ahh" Atless awed. "This is the Gem of Curse. It holds dark powers to immobilize and restrain others, such as silencing them from casting magic."

"'S that so?" the Scotsman said. "How about a trade, then?" Atless tossed the Gem back to the Scotsman and turned around to the Goblin King.

"My powers" Atless began "are not easily invoked. It requires a heart set on benevolence, the strong emotional pull of warmth and caring. **Love is my power, love of the Earth.** You had summoned me once before with such a love, did you not?" The Goblin King nodded and struggled onto his own two feet.

"Out of the responsibility" he said "and the care I had for my people I called to you to help us. And your replied by giving us this land."

"But now there is hatred in your heart" Atless said "and I cannot condone my powers aiding one who is cold and careless to the earth. Our contract must end. I shall leave this land at once."

"But you can't!" the King exclaimed. "Without your powers protecting this gorge, we will be eradicated by Aku's forces! My people, all the men we were trying to help, we'll all be vanquished!"

"No you won't" the Scotsman said, clutching the dark Gen tight in his fist out of pure anger. "Aku is no friend of ours, and if he ain't in good with you either than we've got some common ground worth standing on, don't we?" The Goblin King looked up at the Scotsman and saw him move toward him with a raging furrow across his brow. He leaned down and extended his big, powerful hand to the half-pint king and waited for him to take his grip. "I'll give you your land back, so long as you're using it to fight off Aku. So long as your willing to live beside the highlands and our rolling moors in peace, we won't do battle anymore except against the forces of that galactic-scale bastard in black!" The Goblin King looked between the Scotsman and his wife, and in neither of them did he see any trace of vindication or anger for him. In her he saw a slight grin of mercy, and in him he saw only the rage harnessed for that fantastic evil being over years of fighting against him, but no rage directed onto him personally.

"This compassion" Atless said. "Yes, this is what I will act for. This is what I'm willing to fight for! Know that, in your peace, I shall come to you to aid you in whatever fight you unite for! I promise you the boundless powers of the Earth in this contract of yours!" The Goblin King looked back to the Scotsman and saw the silent plead in his eyes, the want not only for peace but to get something as strong and mighty as a daemon on his side as well. The Goblin King therefore smiled and extended his weary hand into the tight grip of the Scotsman, giving him an equally hard press as they shook on their deal and sealed their pact together.

"It'd be a shame of me" the King said "to deny such a chance for a long-sought peace."

"And it'd be a shame to kill ya for it too" the Scotsman said. Atless was pleased by the emotions he felt between them. Civility and warmth, nothing interfering with what he knew to be genuine, direct compassion and care between two old enemies. The Scotsman's wife was pleased as well.

"Now there'll be no more fights to clean up after, eh?" she said. "That's good. More time for meself in the hall...."

* * *

Once again, in a familiar repeat occurrence, Jack was stirred from a dark sleeping state to wake up to the sights of a fire-blasted battlefield and a concerned friend helping him around. Jack groaned and reached for his head with a burning, strained arm.

"Just relax, Jack" Seth said as he dragged him away. "We're safe now. I managed to fight off the rest of the bounty hunters and I'm pretty sure no more are coming. We're in the clear."

"Where is the Gem?" Jack asked with what little strength he had to speak.

"I have them both right now" Seth said. "The Gem was reacting too violently to you so I had to take it away. You've been hurt by its power."

"Ifrit must have tried to force control of my body away from me" Jack said. "He certainly had the ability to overpower me, but he held back enough to keep me under control."

"So you were in control of Oni Jack?" Seth asked.

"Yes" Jack answered. "Only enough to guide its attacks. I had no power of how its attacks were regulated or what attacks were used. By the looks of things....he exercised no restraint."

"I wouldn't trust a demon with restraint" Seth said. "The Scotsman went ahead of us. He seems to know what he's doing. Plus, it looked like he was taking a Gem with him, so he should be safe as well."

"What of the black-suited assassins?" Jack asked.

"All dust and empty sacks" Seth said. "Once their leader was down the rest of them were incapable of fighting, it seems."

"What were they?" Jack asked. Seth took a pause as he carried him arm-over-shoulder out of the castle and into the open air.

"Let's not worry about that now" Seth said. "Right now, neither of us have the strength to get back to the Scotsman's hall. We need to find a more streamlined way out of this gorge and through the Badlands to the highlands....any ideas?" Jack sighed and fell back to sleep in his tiredness. Seth rested his body against the rock wall and sat with him, taking a well-deserved breath to calm himself down. When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by floating rocks and his stomach suddenly lifted to his throat. A sensation that confused and sent a migraine to his brain overcame him, and that's when he realized briefly and barely what was happening. He spun his body around and found it, **the gravity fiend Demi DelIxriuss, floating in front of him with a black hand extended from within his dark cloak.**

"Howdy" Demi greeted.

"You!" Seth exclaimed. "How did you know where we were!?"

"Ah, this and that" Demi said. "The Gem of Earth guardian is a punk of a demon that I used to bully, so when he was released from his Gem I found my way here to see him again. But look at what else I found: two little humans that managed to piss me off only a few days ago! Man, I'm some kind of lucky, aren't I?" Seth was fiercely apprehensive. He suddenly pulled out the Fire Gem and tossed it out of the gravity field that bound him.

"Go! Ifrit!" Seth called. The Gem fell to the ground and rolled forward before stopping on the dusty rock surface. Demi looked down and picked the red Gem up, looking into its still hot surface at the deep, blazing eyes of Ifrit within.

"Hi there" Demi greeted. "Looks like you've been keeping up with yourself alright, eh?" A pillar of fire softly came from the top of the Gem's surface and spun itself into a demonic, fanged face.

"Your presence here is grim to me" Ifrit admitted, communicating through the effigy of his face drawn in the air with fire. "What ill-wrought omens have led you here? Why do you torment these two men?"

"They kicked my ass!" Demi said defensively. "I'm not even tormenting them, I'm greeting them, you ungrateful bastard lizard...bastard!" Demi released Jack and Seth from their gravitational prison. Seth rushed to Jack's side, as both warriors had landed safely on their backsides, and checked his companion for any grave findings. Jack was still unconscious and still hot to the touch, still suffering under the residual effects of Ifrit's summoning fusion. Demi and Ifrit briefly conversed in a demonic tongue, then Ifrit withdrew to his Gem and was thrown back slowly to Seth. He plucked the Gem from the air and placed it back in the inner pouch of his coat. Demi gave a long and tired sigh.

"I shouldn't have come" Demi said. "Apparently, that guy Jack is being trusted by Ifrit to carry out a great balancing act...or something. If I don't help him after willingly admitting him in part to be my better, even if it was an unintentional defeat I suffered, I have to bend to his whim. Ironic, huh?"

"......uh" Seth began uncertainly, "well, we do need to get back to where we came from."

"Is she alive?" Demi asked.

"...who?" Seth asked.

"Your mother, obviously" Demi said. He began a coarse and mocking laughter, which Seth shied away from in a defiant turn-away. The Scotsman, along with his wife, the Goblin King and the huge, powerful-bodied Atless, all exited from the palace gate at the same time.

"Now who's this lot?" the Scotsman's wife asked.

"Looks troubling" the Scotsman said.

"RAAAHH!!!" shrieked a bounty hunter still left conscious enough to fight. He charged into the scene from the side with a sword held high over his head. "Die, all of you!!!" Demi grabbed him with a gravitational field, aimed him up to the sky and propelled him with such speed that his body was thrown out of the atmosphere, so evil was he deep down. Then, with a sigh, he brought his arm down and pulled at the edge of his cape to bring it in tighter to his body.

"Alright" Demi said. "How many people do I need to carry?" The Scotsman looked between his wife and Atless, who was busy shyly avoiding a confrontation with his demonic better. The air of tension was lightened only by the reversal field applied by the dark demon which lightened the weight of everyone around him to nothing and gave them the sway of leaves under his cosmic, gravitational wind. "Just point them out and I'll pick them up....now where we going?" Still confused the Scotsman was unable to answer, but Seth had been shaken from his daunted state already and swam his way through the weightless air to answer.

"To the highlands" Seth proclaimed "to the Scotsman's clan hall!" Demi sighed at his enthusiasm, plotted the course, and made the snaking way of gravity that led over the Badlands and the marsh to end right at the gates of the hall.

An instant later the party was there, flung to the ground from out of thin air with a great band of warriors gathering around....


	29. Episode 29

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXIX: Jack's Farewell and Departure

* * *

Demi waited outside in the middle of the moors with his cloak of darkness and sparkling stars around him. He sat on the air and simply waited, watching the skies for all manner of long-range tracking probes to shoot down. He rose up his arm and pointed out one of them from the low orbit and pulled back the spiked digit that acted as his thumb.

"Bang" he apathetically said, drawing his thumb back down. He sighed and leaned back, sitting on a pivot of solid gravity. His boredom knew no end and the moors were speckled with the wreckage of Aku's satellites brought down by his power. A new one screamed through the sky and stopped just above the grass. Demi dimmed its fires with a snuff of pressure and then set it neatly in a clean pile atop the grass. "I hope those guys aren't too annoying. Ifirt's a persuasive son of a bitch, though, and he's my superior. I don't have much choice but to listen to his damn demands...."

Back in the hall a ruckus was being made over the Scotsman's return and the peaceful contract made by the clan with their long-fought enemies, now friends in nature, the Goblins and Orcs. Not in attendance were the bounty hunters that the Goblins housed for protection, as their purpose had obviously ended. Up in the higher tower quarters rested Jack, whose body was still recovering from the trying turmoil that the power of the fire Gem had put on him. Seth rested as well with his sword propped against the length of the wall and all three Gems resting on a plush cushion between Seth's corner and Jack's hay bed. Standing outside the door were two tall and very stern guards while guarding from the roof of the same tower were Goblin marksmen watching and patrolling with long-range laser crossbows armed to fire.

The entire hall was in celebration while still maintaining a high defense to pride its banners and standards which now flew with an addition of the Goblin Kingdom on the stone wall in the meal hall over the great fire pit. The formal acceptance for any clan to join with the Scotsman's great and legendary hall was for its flag, the prideful symbol of its people, to be displayed along with all the others. Across that hall, gilded with all manner of flags from the warriors who ventured through the world fighting its atrocities and finding their way to the hall, was the honorable banner that Jack carried in his heart printed on a starch-white paper. The Scotsman rose up a mug of his strongest ale to that flag and made a rosy-cheeked toast.

"To good ol, Jack" he said. "May that pajama wearin, short-sword swinging, bun-haired, jumpy little critter of a powerful man live a long and eventful life!"

"To Jack!" the hall cheered. Even the Goblins and the Orcs, not without their own knowledge, celebrated the name of their new ally Jack.

"What about that other guy?" a warrior asked after the cheering died to the drowning gulps of ale. "The one with the.....uh....he wears uh....he's got the...."

"Girly hair?" the Scotsman said. "Aye, to him too. Seth, I think. May he....get a good haircut and look like a man someday!" The hall cheered with laughter at that.

"Fine swordsman though" a man said bringing the obligated compliment to his warrior skills.

"Aye, h'is" the Scotsman said. "Good with that long sword, looks like Jack's too."

"To swords!" a drunken warrior, who had welded and wielded into all his equipped armor the blades of many axes.

"Aye!" the men cheered, even those without weaponry to brag or hoist up. The men all drank rich swills of the thick ale while gnawing on the rough hide of sheep legs and boat breasts and the odd whole bull's body roasted slowly over a spit. The feast was grand and lengthy, lasting well into the night. The Goblins had proven their worth to the clan by outlasting even the tallest, widest and most brutish of drunkards in retaining their balance. Of course, their smaller forms made staying upright a much easier task than those who wavered with the churning swings of their huge guts. The Orcs were proven to be the weakest of swillers who fell asleep and were unshakable from their cold sleep after only a few drinks apiece.

Meanwhile, as the men drank themselves blind and stupid, the Scotsman's Wife rested comfortably in her own room, staying up to read peacefully with the temporary company of Atless, the Earth daemon and guardian of the Gem promised to the Goblins for their new home. He held his own Gem in his hand and looked over it with a nostalgic, youthful sense of wonderment.

"So yer one 'o those magical people, right?" she asked.

"That's right" Atless said. "We all have our own different preference to naming. I'm more of a sort of demi-god than a daemon, but I was raised and trained by many others who called themselves demons as well."

"Is that so?" she said. "Well what about that training then? They make you lift up mountains or do squats on the bottom of the ocean?"

"Oh, it was nothing particular" Atless admitted. "It was certainly hard, but I was picked especially by the Titan Atlas himself to be the guardian of this power. Even still, however, I'm not completely sure how this all works. I know that this Gem, and I, are both representative of the powers of Earth made manageable by those who have the emotional hold to command the powers, but I never learned how....I guess it's just a mystery that's above me for now."

"Well however they're made" she said "they seem to be made quite well. I wouldn't mind havin one of those pretty Gems in a necklace or a helmet. You think, if it was built into a weapon, the weapon'd have some kind of magic to it?"

"Yes" Atless said. "I was taught just that, in fact. These Gems, once imbued into a metal, won't be damaged by heat or change their form but they will add their power into whatever they were crafted into, be it armor or a weapon of any kind, and the more Gems one has in their arsenal the more powers they can command. It's only been recently that the Gems have been stirred majorly, however."

"Since Jack started up his questing?" she asked.

"Before that" Atless said "but not by very much. Maybe....three years or so?"

"Curious" she said. "Perhaps you could ask around with the rest of yer magic friends about that, see if they'd know a thing or two about it."

"That's a good idea" Atless said. "I shall ask....tomorrow, when I can be sure either Seth or Jack is awake. I need to tell them something incredibly important before they decide to leave....

* * *

The next morning the sun greeted no one. Even the dainty lass the Scotsman's Wife slept in from having stayed up to read as Atless kept her company. The daemon in question kept himself busy in his eternal waking state to patrol the hall and ensure that no hatred tainted the peaceful friendship that kept him there. The promise of a warm waking emotion shared by the Goblin King and the Scotsman alike. He looked down from the railing of the high stairs and saw all the men, great or not, sleeping with a rumbling of cacophonous snoring.

"Keep yourself company" Atless said "by making company of yourself, eh? Then again, her snoring was what really startled me..." Atless moved off, feeling nothing but a warm drunken mirth coming from the hall full of drunken, sleeping warriors who celebrated the revelation of peace. He went up the stairs of the tower where Seth and Jack were resting and saw the guards asleep at their post. He opened the door on a whim and entered the room, his earthen-yellow skin casting a quick glare from the sunlight that shone in from the window across the closed eyes of Seth. The young man woke up in an instant and blocked the light with a hand and threw shut the curtains.

"Sorry" Atless said. "I had hoped that wouldn't happen, unfortunately." Seth stood up slowly. All his hair fell down flat to his skin-tight gray tanktop along his back and his bangs fell down from their upturned angles just above his brow. His eyes were intense in the morning light, **bright and green**. He shook the surprise off upon seeing Atless and ran a hand through his hair, straightening his bangs out again.

"Ah, good morning" Seth said. "I don't suppose you're here to join us as we prepare to leave, are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry" Atless said. "I've already promised to protect the Goblins and help them cultivate their land again. The love within their King for all his people is a great one. It helped power me for so long, until it faded behind the veil of his own hubris, but now that the fire is alive again I want to give him the second chance that he deserves."

"You're a very honorable man" Seth said. "Well, daemon, I suppose. But who says demons can't be good men?"

"Indeed" Atless said. He looked over his broad shoulder and locked the door suddenly. "Seth" he began, "do you know where to go next?"

"Actually, no" Seth admitted. "We've run out of leads. It's purely by luck that we managed to find you and....the Curse Gem over there." Seth pointed to the swirling midnight sphere between the bright blue-green lightning and darkened red fire. "I'm sure if we drift long enough we'll hear some rumors or tales or legends or whatever. That seems to be how we got started, with Jack's good fortune for finding those with goodwill toward him pointing us to Hikami island."

"Why did it never occur to you" Atless asked "to simply ask the guardians of the Gems themselves where you should go?"

"It didn't" Seth said. "Actually, I had no idea Ifrit inhabited that Gem until Jack fused bodies with him back then. And now you claim to be from that same Gem you're carrying. I believe it...it's just a little strange when you think about it."

"Well" Atless began, "I can't admit that I know everything myself, as an amateur compared to the rest of the guardians, but I do know a little bit about how these Gems originated."

"Is that so?" Seth said.

"They say" Atless began "that a race existed on a far, distant planet an extremely long time ago, before Aku had taken over this planet and clawed his way through the universe. That race mastered their control over the elements of their planet, all the same as this one with a few exceptions, and then sealed their knowledge into a material form for others to use in the subsequent generations of the planet. Then another race found and collected all the Gems and sent them out into space when the planet was within its final days to preserve the knowledge and the power contained within all of them. They sent them out randomly on meteors, but somehow they all managed to find their way to this planet, all but a few." Seth continued to listen intently on the firsthand knowledge of the sacred artifacts he fought so hard over his life to obtain.

"Those few" Atless continued "all had within them the greatest powers of any other Gem. There was a Black one, a White one, a Silver and a Golden one, and then one that not even the demons who guard the Gems here know about. A secretive Gem that many think is lost within the void of space eternally that held a power which no mortal being could fight against!"

"The White and Black" Seth mentioned. "Those are the important ones to me. I have the White already, safely stored away from Aku's eyes. The Black, however, is one I must also find so that the obvious power of the White Gem won't be contested when I decide to use it against Aku."

"Well" Atless began, "those five I mentioned are odd exceptions for the rest of us. You see, they have no guardian spirits, no daemons or monsters to protect them from unworthy hands, and not just anyone is capable of using them, either. They can only be used by those that they approve of."

"Yes I know" Seth said. "I suppose it's just a pipe-dream to ask you about them for too long. If you don't know, then you don't know, I understand."

"Well I'm glad you don't think that highly of me" Atless said with a grin.

"Ah!" Seth exclaimed. "I didn't mean any offense by that, I swear! I was just-"

"Haha!" Atless laughed quietly. "I am a reader of emotions, just like any other daemon claims to be. I could sense your honest friendship like a warm glow, Seth." He and Seth shared a friendly chuckle at the expense of the young man's composure and shook off the moment quickly. "You're right, _I_ don't know much....but then, I was trained by those who _do._"

"....who?" Seth asked.

"Ifrit, for one" Atless said, pointing to the fire Gem. "But he's not the only one. There are two more, besides myself and Ifrit, who control the classical elements of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. If you wish to know everything, I would seek them out. No single daemon has an infinite knowledge of things, but many of them know much more than others."

"Would you know where I should start my search for them?" Seth asked.

"But of course" Atless said. He and Seth sat down while Atless unfolded a roll of clay from his flesh and laid it down between them. With a stick grown out from under his fingernail Atless began sketching a series of drawings accompanied by ancient script and directions readable only to the daemons themselves. Directions understandable for one such as Demi who had the power, and obligation, to take Seth and the Samurai wherever they needed to go under the command of the apparent superior force Ifrit Dajeen...

* * *

The morning passed, as did the time of noon, and then in the afternoon the hall finally awoke. Atless and Seth were the first to greet the well-slept men who had drunken themselves to sleep the day before which felt to them like a day still before that. The Goblins were up in unfamiliar but entirely welcoming company. Their King, a man of great renewed modesty, had slept for the night in the Scotsman's unoccupied stables. Unoccupied, of course, because any horse can be cooked properly and in a hall of such well-gutted men they are after not too long. He and many of the civilians unfit to be crowding the great hall of warriors, rested in that wide and airy place, covered with all the blankets that Demi cared to bring with him from the palace before he destroyed the entire valley out of sadistic glee.

After an afternoon of raucous shouting, manly dancing and mighty contests of strength from within the clan the Scotsman had finally given in to his greater concern and went up with Seth to the tower to check on Jack.

"In all the time I've known the lad" the Scotsman said "he's never been the sort to let a little heat knock him over. The winds can howl but there'll stand that pompous lad, letting his dress billow around shamelessly, with his sword up to them."

"He's strong" Seth agreed "but not invincible. Even he knows that."

"Bah!" the Scotsman scoffed. "He and are men who won't die, even if we get killed!"

"That's wrong" Seth said. "No matter what when people are killed they die."

"You've obviously never fought a zombie before, have ya?" the Scotsman lowed. He looked into the room with a start and saw Jack standing at the window peering out into the horizon, contemplating silently in a trance-like standing meditation. "Oh, boy-o, I knew you were fine! Just had to check cause we're running out of ale down there. You want a pint you're gonna have to hoof it to get it!" The Scotsman's words went deaf to Jack. He was deep in thought and unshakable. Even so, the Scotsman took his shoulder and lightly shook him. "You awake, lad?"

"I don't think he is" Seth said. He moved forward to try the same thing and placed a hand gently on Jack's shoulder. The warrior snapped, grabbed Seth's hand, pulled it forward and held it in a clutch along his back with both arms hooked around it, the elbow forcing itself to bend backwards. "AH! Jack, stop!" Jack snapped out of his defense and let Seth go. The silver-haired man took his arm and held it, wincing as he bent it and flexed it, testing each finger slowly.

"My apologies, my friend" Jack said. "I was startled by your presence. Are you hurt?"

"I'll be fine" Seth said, swinging his arm loosely at his side. "I guess once a warrior, always one, right? You could kill a man in your sleep."

"I am very sorry, Seth" Jack said with a bow. The Scotsman looked at his own hand, then back at Seth who continued to sheepishly insist there was no harm done. He wondered, to himself, why his hand didn't startle Jack the same way....

At a length of time and after an appropriate period of men crying, Jack and Seth stood outside the great doors of the grand hall with their possessions slung over shoulder and a sack of home-cooked foods and breads to keep them well on their journey.

"Take care of yourselves" the Scotsman's wife said. "If you come back here with more than one broken bone after being so dramatic these fool's'll never let you live it down."

"Do make sure to return, Jack" said the Scotsman. "Know your always welcome here as me family!" He and Jack exchanged their vice-grip handshake and shook it off afterwards with smiles.

"Whenever my quest brings me here" Jack said "I shall be certain to stop by."

"That goes for you too, laddie" the Scotsman said with a finger aimed at Seth. "Now that you're in, we won't let you out! If Jack comes back without ye we'll hold a funeral for ya and burn something of yours as tribute, so it's your own fault if it's something you like!"

"I appreciate the concern" Seth said nervously. "Thank you very much for your hospitality." Jack and Seth bowed, receiving cheers, shouts of praise and from the two leaders of that clan respectful bows in return. Jack and Seth promptly set out for the middle of the field where Demi continued waiting patiently. As their figures retreated, backed by the calls and hollers of the clan from the hall, the Scotsman's Wife rose up a hand and tapped her husband on his head.

"Well?" she began. "You think you get off work today? Look at that mess out there! All those flying metal contraptions are mussin up our yard! Go and clean them up when Jack is away."

"Wha?" the Scotsman started. "Wait a second, now, since when is that part of me job?"

"It's your moor, ain't it?" she said. "You want to keep it, you clean it up!"

"It ain't like a room, woman" the Scotsman said. "I can't take a broom to it! That's hundreds of tons of metal, scalding hot metal, spread across me field!"

"So bend them into little posies for your hair then" she taunted "if yer too weak to move 'em!"

"Ah, quit quarrelin with me!" the Scotsman bellowed as he and his wife moved through the parting crowd. Atless watched after them with a sigh of his tired face, feeling between them both an infinite love and a wicked snap of hatred.

"Marriage is the most confusing love" he said "when it's just right...."

Demi continued sitting on air, spinning a spiral of metal over his head, bending it along with the universe around it with the maximum output of his power focused on his boredom. Jack and Seth approached him from the hill with a scroll held in hand by Seth. Demi set his feet back to the ground and summoned up his cloak from the ground which shot up like a shadow cast on by light around his body again.

"Ehhhh?" Demi scathingly asked. "You got somewhere to go???"

"Two places for today" Seth said. "I wouldn't want to take advantage of you, no matter how well I could under Ifrit's contract against you."

"That slimy lizard bastard" Demi lowed. "Alright, where to first?"

"To the city where I live so that we can gather the rest of the Gems I've stored" Seth said. "Once we're there I'll ask you to take us somewhere else so that we may search for the **Gem of Ice.**"

"Fair enough" Demi said. He held out his arms and surrounded them with a translucent void of space. **"Don't fall out"** he warned. Instantly they were transported through space, powered by gravity which bent their bodies and stretched their atoms to the most minute weight and measurement conceivable, allowing them to travel with the speed of light across the cosmos, around the planet, and then back onto solid ground in solid form. The whole process was so indescribably taxing that Seth and Jack had nearly vomited on the spot outside of Seth's shanty underneath the folds of metal roads.

"This is it?" Demi asked. "What a dump. Well, hurry it up. I won't be going anywhere...." Seth and jack looked to what was once Seth's home and saw ruin. The only thing that seemed to remain among the looted, burned down rubble of his previous home was a locked box. Seth ran to the box and cut off its edges with quick swipes of his sword. The box fell apart and revealed, safely encased in the soft texture of the velvet within, the misty White Gem.

"What has happened!?" Jack asked. Seth took the Gem and placed it in his inner coat pocket.

"It's no worry to us" Seth said. "We still have the White Gem. That's all we needed from here."

"You had me come here for _that!?_" Demi exclaimed. He turned away and scoffed. "You guys annoy the hell out of me."

"Well get used to it" Seth said, invoking his wrathful apathetic glare. "At the very least you won't see us for a whole day after you take us here." Seth unfolded the map and pointed out a part of it. Demi read it, closed his eyes, clapped his hands and held out his arms. They were away again, there and gone before even the most sensitive surveillance droid picked up their presence....


	30. Episode 30

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXX. Jack and the Ice Mountain

* * *

The frozen reach of the world is where the quest continues. A long plane of snow and ice and constantly blowing winds. Always a whiteout, visibility nigh but gone. Nothing lived for long unprotected in this harsh roof of the world where clouds of gray always swarmed, heavy with snow and ice to fall down onto the land and coat it all over again. A single frozen mountain of shadows marked the only percievable mass of real land in sight, the destination as pointed out by Atless' map and directions scribed upon it. This is where the quest resumed as Jack and Seth sought out the truth of the Gems and the knowledge to use the unusable White one Seth carried with him.

Demi, the dark and evil Gravity Demon, sat on air, on a pivot of his own twisted gravity, and watched the two he was so ungraciously bound to gear themselves up. Jack equipped a thick coat of furs he had acquired in his travels with the hood of a bear's head over his head to protect from the cold. Seth wore a more sophisticated set of equipment, a thickened fur-lined leather coat and insulating coldwear underneath his moisture-resistant top. His pants fabric was padded and stuffed into his boots which rose up to the middle of his shins. His hair was within the hood of his coat to keep from swaying and potentially freezing in the breeze.

"Sure you're warm enough?" Demi asked with a skeptical, low snicker of self gratitude. Jack and Seth both glanced his way and patiently divided up their Gems.

"We know not what this dark one does" Jack said "so it is to assume that we will not use it as frequently."

"I'll keep it in that case" Seth said. "I've got more pockets than you...wait, do you have pockets?"

"I have a pouch sewn into the inner hem of this coat" Jack said.

"That's a pocket then" Seth said. "It's really not much of a decision, is it? Which do you prefer, lightning or fire?"

"Either way shall be fine" Jack said. "The fire Gem will be more of a hazard, I believe, if it is misused in this environment. "I feel a certain affinity for the fire Gem, though."

"Take it then" Seth said, holding it out. Jack took it in his fur-lined glove hand and stowed it in the side pouch inside his thick, white coat. "Now, about coordination, how will we reunite if we get separated without alerting everything out here, if there is anything, to our position?" Jack looked to his white fur coat and frowned at it for once.

"This is a bit troublesome" Jack admitted. "I have rarely traveled through such lands with company, so it was more useful for me to not be seen at all."

"I understand that" Seth said. "I suppose, if worse comes to worse and we are separated, we can always trust each other to use the Gems to find our goal and meet there."

"Of course" Jack said. "The Gems will always guide to each other. But for now, we shall travel side-by-side. I have been through such lands before. There are indeed creatures hiding in the veils of flowing snow, and very few with the whim to understand what they attack out of hunger and madness."

"Can you fight in that coat?" Seth asked, staring at the thick linings of fur all around Jack's arms. Jack simply nodded and Seth confirmed his belief with a nod as well.

"Just get going already!" Demi shouted as he stood on the powdery snow as if weightless. "Jeez. How long does it take two self-proclaimed warriors to shut the hell up and get going? A year, maybe two!? **GO already!**"

"And how will we signal you?" Jack asked skeptically.

"We're sure as hell not finding our way back here" Seth said. "Even if you stay and wait we may never show up. Is that what you were counting on to get out of your 'contract'?"

"I can find the Gems" Demi said "naturally. It's a bond between demons, neh-neh-neh. If you call for me I'll come, but only call when you're ready to get moving to the next spot. If you don't have the Gem by then I'm not bringing you back here, got it?"

"Understood" Jack said. "Thank you for you assistance."

"Don't thank me" Demi said. He swung his cape around his shoulders and disappeared as it wrapped around him into a spinning void of matter. He was gone completely and left the two men to their task of trudging through the snow in their thick boots, Jack's of natural leather lined with fur and Seth's of modern design, sleek and flexible. They walked toward the far away shadow of a mountain, staying close at each other's side, and soon vanished into the thick veil of constant snow.

They crested over great drifts and dunes of snow together, staying on the compacted surfaces of snow or on solid patches of frozen ice so they wouldn't fall through the meters of snow that had gathered like fine, freezing sand all around them. Jack took a temporary lead as they neared a crest of solid ice that seemed to ascend straight up to a flat plateau. He made the effort to carefully climb by grabbing onto the notches in the ice and the natural sharp juts made from the constantly changing, harsh winds but still found it difficult in the constant battery of the wind and the naturally slick consistency of the ice wall to keep his ascent vertical. Seth outplayed Jack not by climbing but by somehow making a sheer vertical dash up the wall, pumping his legs so his knees nearly met his chest each time and reached the peak of the wall in a jump.

"Hurry it up, Jack!" Seth called jokingly. "The Ice guardian may not wait forever if you take the long way all the time!" Jack grinned and kept at his regular pace, staying safe as he climbed the unstable surface and grabbing Seth's waiting glove upon reaching the top. He was helped up and onto his feet again by the smug but charitable Seth, and then they continued on with a shared adventurous attitude.

* * *

After only a short leg of their travel Jack and Seth were impeded by a powerful storm of snow. They were blinded by white and forced behind a tall dune of snow together to outlast the biting, ravenous cold. They kept the great shadow of the mountain nearby so that when the deafening howl of frozen winds died down they could move out quickly to the next cover and proceed hopping between dune and dune and hopefully cave, drawing ever closer to their goal. Seth held his Gem to his eye and saw the beam of light still pointing in the same direction where the mountain shadow had vanished in the snow.

"Does this happen a lot?" Seth asked, shouting over the wind.

"It will not last for long" Jack said to dismiss his concern. "At worst we will be delayed for only a few minutes while this squall passes through. The storm around this area is constant, and it keeps a regular force all the time, so sudden increases in intensity are very few at a time."

"Good to know" Seth said. They waited out the surge of wind, which died down as Jack had said within minutes, and then moved as quickly as they could through leg-swallowing snow drifts. Jack heard the swelling of another fierce wind and rushed with Seth nearby to hide behind another snow drift. The blast of wind was quick to die down and leave them to advance. They sped across the powder plane and eventually reached a slick surface of ice that bulged up from under the thick blanket of snow. Jack's fur boots gave him traction enough to pass over it without noticing, but Seth immediately slipped and fell forward into the snow. He stood up and shook himself off, going from black-and-white to solid black again with Jack smirking under the cover of his bear-hood and thick wool scarf.

They continued and reached what seemed to be a frozen, rock wall of icy blue. The winds picked up once again and both men had to hold onto the rock wall to keep from being blown away. Even so, their fingers were pried out from under the rocky juts and pointy crags. They gripped with their covered knuckles facing the strong wind and billowing snow until it finally died down and they got a good look up the vertical slope ahead of them.

"How fast can you seriously climb?" Seth asked.

"I shall be fine" Jack said. "If you reach the top before me, find shelter from the wind and wait. I will find it as well."

"Got it" Seth said. He got a running start and started running up the wall as an explosive head start. When his body was about to fall he pushed it forward and grabbed into the rock wall with his gloved hands and began climbing rapidly, moving the same sided arm and leg at the same time. Jack was slower and safer but still sped himself up as much as he could to keep Seth in his sight. Seth managed to reach the top first and took a knee to the ledge to wait for Jack. However, even now he could hear the coming of a storm as the winds began to howl in the distance. He looked around, squinting through the flying white snow, and spotted a blue, glowing hole in the side of a rocky face.

"A cave!" Seth realized. He took no time to warn his astute and powerful friend and took flight directly to the cave. The snow on the elevated peak was only ankle deep and the ground was rough and without the perpetual cover of ice, but still frozen into a blue hue like the rest of the region seemed to be. The winds hit just as Seth entered the cave which howled loudly as the winds circled in and out of its mouth. The snaking white streams of snow swept across the level area just outside the cave with a blasting force, so fast that Seth could hardly follow them. He sighed and felt his body chill. He took up a flexible stretch from his bodysuit around his neck and brought it up around his mouth and nose. He was still able to breathe through them fine as the cold was the only thing halting his lungs at the moment.

Jack, meanwhile, had to endure the hateful winds on the side of a sheer, icy rock face, stuck in place and unable to move against the fierce, frozen squall. He held his place as best he could with his fingers tight against the jutting precipice that hung from the vertical wall of frost. The snow dunes shifted in this sudden wind and a solid white cover swept over the base of the mountain where the men had reached. Jack refused defeat from the mighty gusts of nature and instead withdrew his sword from within his thick coat that blew into him powerfully. He stabbed into the wall with force enough to penetrate the frozen ground and used it to help him reach up to the next step. The winds died down but still howled loudly and pushed fiercely against him.

Jack was determined in his goal and forced his body up and over the final ledge. On the flat and frozen blue shelf he was pushed aside with great force by the toppling winds and slowly slid away until he stabbed his blade into the ground. He held himself in place with that sword and endured the freezing wind whipping snow into his unguarded brow. Seth saw him as a thick tuft of blowing snow, or a mound of white ice, out on the plain he knew to be flat, and that's when he realized what danger Jack was in.

"What can I do?" Seth wondered. If I go out there we'll both just be blown away, but if I don't do anything....no. Regardless, I know better than this. It's Samurai Jack I'm worrying about right now. He's survived alone against pretty much the whole world for years already while I've only been fighting against one static enemy from time to time. Jack can handle anything. I just need to concentrate on advancing on my own....." Seth turned to the cave's depths and ran to them. He brought out his Gem and lit his way with the shining beam of light that guided him ever into the mountain, and ever upwards.

Jack, meanwhile, had lasted out the powerful gust and now stood in a much calmer wind that blew soft, big flakes of snow past him. He looked around and sheathed his sword ready to advance. His choices to make were a cave that was unreasonably dark and a ramp path made from the gusting winds and melting snow against an eternally frozen blue rock. Jack knew the pattern of the winds now. He had time until the next powerful squall to make great headway while the visibility was still higher than normal. He chose the open path and brought out his fire Gem to warm his frozen face as he advanced. A beam of hot light shone out through the Gem and pointed upward, right in the direction where the path led along the rocky side of the mountain.

The traveler that he was, Jack walked up the path in a duteous march toward an unseen and distant goal...

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the mighty throne-world of Aku, and well within his sights, a force began to mobilize. The soldier in purple, a man named Claude, stood at the front of a line of men all armed with battle rifles with broad bayonet blades attached under the barrel. At his side stood a powerful looking, slender-waisted and haughty-hipped woman wearing an open karate gi with an arrogantly displayed bust under a feeble tank-top. Her hands were guarded by thick, fingerless gloves and her hair was done long down her back and tied near the end with a black ribbon.

These two were at the head of Claude's apparent military force mobilized with the unending aid of Aku's dominion over the lives of many men to capture and end the Samurai Jack, wherever he was. These two stood at the precipice of the fiery rock ledges in the demonic spire of Aku's domain and awaited the great evil himself to come to them. The blistering fires kicked up on the walls and a shadowy tower ascended up from deep down below. Two red fires caught at its top and Aku turned full around to face the gathered crowd of his. He lowered himself and his giant face down to Claude and his consort with an army of gunmen behind.

"You have done well so far" Aku declared to Claude "in preparing to face the Samurai. You know how deep his trickery goes! You do not underestimate his blade, nor his cunning mind! You have adapted these men not only with the tools of destruction for all man, but with the means to fight the Samurai on his own level as he so often demands. And I see you have even managed to gain the company of another powerful warrior!" Aku's enormous hand reached up from the fiery blasting furnace down below and lifted the girl up by her black gi.

"Hey!" she shouted, kicking her legs and swinging her arms. Aku brought her up close to his wide, circular eyes, and stared long and deep into her soul. All the while she thrashed and cursed the dark lord out. "Get your spiky hands offa my only suit, you giant freak! Come on! Let me down before I decide your non-existent ass is worth kicking!" Aku drew her away and held her just above the ground he picked her from, then reeled back with his other hand over his face laughing.

"BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! To think a mortal such as you could be of a challenge to me! What foolish bravery! You shall do well against the Samurai! Fools of a feather tend to fight together, they say, but when the flock is stirred by conflict a great fissure is caused!" He dropped her down and she fell with a scream onto her butt. Claude only followed her down with his eyes and turned to her when she sat in an angered huff. She stood herself up and scowled at Claude for not helping out.

"I shall leave this to you" Aku declared. "To destroy the Samurai and bring peace to my world once more. I can only imply his position on this planet based on what I know from my many, many, MANY worldwide eyes. **MANY** of them have been shot down, in this region!" Aku summoned up a map of the planet from the flames and pointed out the area where so many hovering monitor satellites had been disabled and destroyed over several night hours and into the afternoon of the next day. Claude memorized the location in an instant, just as the map was taken away.

"So how're we going to get there?" the girl asked. Claude turned and spread his soldiers back out of the spire from whence they entered. Aku slowly descended with a sly, villainous smirk on his face as Claude moved out silently, all his body shrouded and covered by his armor, his broad cleaving blade holstered on his back perfectly.

"We'll get a way" Claude said, his voice partially masked by the helmet's natural identity filter, "the same as always." The girl nodded enthusiastically and took out a simple cell-phone which began auto-dialing.

"I'll get on this right now" she said, holding the phone up to her hear. It rang for some time as she followed her leader down the path with springy steps and spry hops from rock to hop to keep at his side. Aku went back to his realm of darkness and belching fire with his chin, or the bottom of his mouth, rested impatiently on his balled fist. He grumbled and growled and went to stroking his fire beard slowly.

"There is something about those two" he noted. "Something strange about their souls. They are loyal....but I cannot see to whom in truth. And they are deep and mystically wide, not pools like many men, like the Samurai. Their souls are like deep-reaching lakes that hide unknown wonders beneath their shrouded waters...I cannot tell what exactly they are about, but I am sure, completely certain, that they will need to be watched...." With a wave of his hand he went to watching them both from all angles while a huge monitor centered in the middle of the hovering darkness was focused on static, searching forever for the elusive Samurai Jack....


	31. Episode 31

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXXI. Jack and the Yeti

* * *

Pushing through the pushing white veil of snow, Jack made his way to a flat plain of ankle-deep frost and ice. The shadows of the mountain seemed to surround him. He looked in all directions for a beacon to somewhat guide him. The winds roared and seemed to snort at him, like an animal breathing great gales of pure white snow with each heaving breath it gave, an icy dragon just beyond the shades of the snowy veil keeping Jack down with its constant attacks of frozen breath. Jack drew out his glowing red fire Gem and held it up. In the dark, shrouded snowy land the light was dim and weak, but it was still there. Jack saw it point forward and just slightly to the left. He stepped into its proper direction and began walking forward, taking careful straight steps into and out of the thick snow.

Again, the winds snorted and growled at him. Jack stopped only a few steps into his venture and the winds began to calm. He took out his sword in his fur-lined leather grip and held it close. The winds had softened. The snow fell down in a peaceful and snow cascade of huge flakes. Jack listened closely and heard, not the howling snorts of wind through rocks, but the real snorting breath of a sleeping beast. He turned around and saw a snow drift, a huge one at that, in the middle of the snow-covered plain. He realized just then how far away he was, ignoring the drift to catch sight of the far, distant mountain face that the Gem guided him to. He still had a long and tedious trek ahead of him and hoped, for simplicity sake, that Seth's venture was destined to be a slightly shorter one.

Suddenly, the drift growled. Jack's greater fears were realized just then, as the drift started to stir and drop snow from its rounded peak. Jack backed away, keeping his distance while gaining ground toward the distant, unseen goal on the mountainside. Suddenly, the mound of snow burst apart and a Yeti, a fearsome sight for the wary Samurai, stood full. A giant white-furred gorilla it was with palmed feet and a thick, barreled chest. Its face was equally covered with snow-white fur with two black circles for eyelids and rows of gnarled teeth capable of chewing through even the most eternally frozen ice. Its hands were thick and powerful, balled up into fists as it stretched itself out from its long sleep due to an unknown awakening.

The Yeti shook its head and let a shower of snow cover it. Jack sheathed his sword and hid with his furs blending in to the snowy terrain all around him, a perfect defense. The Yeti, a monstrous yet simple creature, opened its yellow eyes with a yawn and smack of its lips. It looked around, seeing the terrain and realizing that it was still the midst of a storming winter time. It scratched its head and turned around. Jack took the opportunity to carry on as fast and stealthily as he could. The Yeti was distracted by its own unceremonious waking and curiously gazed at the swirling blizzards far away and off the mountain. Then, with a snort and confused grunt, it turned back around. Jack ducked back down and hid himself under his white furs, hoping that the Yeti had not yet noticed his presence.

The Yeti did indeed sense something amiss, but it wasn't Jack. There was some larger anomaly somewhere that seemed to be focused on. It looked all around, trying desperately to trace that same anomaly, and looked away again to the lower rises and climbing spires of the mountain's base. Jack sped away again, finding through the thin veil of falling snow a path leading straight up, a straight rock ramp still visible despite the piling snow, just a short distance away. Above that there seemed to a short stretch of ice and then a sheer vertical wall that led up to where the Gem had pointed. Jack sped up, forsaking stealth and the Yeti behind him that he could easily outrun and outwit. He seemed to be in the clear.

Then danger struck. Jack sensed it but kept running forward. The Yeti was suddenly feral. It held its head with its hands and started growling, as if in pain over something. A great screeching sound echoed in its ears and caused it immense pain. The Yeti roared and pounded its fists to the snowy ground in a rage. Jack had just reached the ramp when the commotion began and turned around. The Yeti was in the middle of a swirling sort of energy. It was leaking up through the ground and surrounding the hairy beast, a pale green sort of flickering energy that had spotted within it a curious red. The creeping tentacles of energy burrowed their way through the Yeti's fur and invaded it, draining into its body until there was none of it left. Then a quiet lull, a disheartening silence during the peaceful storm. The Yeti stomped full around, its eyes glowing green now with black vertical slits for pupils, and it cried out with an echoing rage.

"_**HOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!"**_ The ice-beast's roar shook the ground and the snow. Jack was nearly toppled by its furious call alone. Then the stomping began as the Yeti charged at Jack and lunged at him with a jump. Jack dodged quickly to the side as the Yeti fell down with a fist smashed into the ground. It glared over and stepped after Jack, throwing a powerful backhand at him and then another stomp to shake the rock floor beneath them. Jack dodged as quick as he could and jumped up during the initial shocking quakes the Yeti made. He drew his blade again and kept the Gem inside his coat. He didn't want to harm the Yeti any further than he must to keep it from attacking. The beast still roared, opening its mouth large and wide, bearing all its sharpened teeth and dull, hammer-strength molars, emitting a steaming hot breath as it shouted a wordless roar to Jack.

* * *

"These tunnels" Seth said "are endless! It's like a labyrinth running through the base of the mountain! How are these natural formations!?" Seth carried on regardless with his sword still sheathed behind him and both Gems safe in his coat pocket. He took random turns into dead ends and doubled back by running backwards as his sword was too long to let him turn in the tunnel without him drawing it and turning it around as he went manually. But he had no time to be overly concerned over the trivial nature of his sword. He was confident that there would be no enemies for some time, as nothing would dare to brave a blizzard so fierce just to attack the questing men.

Seth made a turn into a wider tunnel, one where he could easily turn around, and stopped to catch his breath. "This is tiring" Seth said. He pulled down his face cover to take deeper breaths and smelled a strong scent of burning oil as he inhaled. "What? Oil? In this mountain?" Seth sniffed the air and found the scent to be strong and near by. He covered his face again to filter the air and walked slowly forward. The cave's natural lighting of luminescent rocks and softly glowing ice started to dim as the warm hue of an orange fire began to brighten the tunnels. Seth cautiously turned a corner and spotted a dim-lit fire roasting at the end of a torch. It was a primitive torch at best built off the end of a long and steady piece of rock, but a burning fire nonetheless made from a cloth soaked in flammable oils.

"Who could have done this?" Seth wondered. "It's not an ancient thing, it's still lit. Someone must have been here recently and left this here. Perhaps I was wrong; maybe there _are_ men searching for us already! I'll have to stay on my guard, but with what?" Seth knew his sword was too long to be used in a narrow space and the Gem of lightning was far too dangerously destructive. If any stray bolt would hit the wall it could shake the whole tunnel and collapse it on top of him. He took the darker alternate, the midnight shade Curse Gem, and settled on using it as best he could. He gripped it tight and saw a spire of dark, ethereal mist pointing out between his fingers to show him a way forward. It pointed down a very dark tunnel with no lighting at all. Seth went to the entrance of a different tunnel to test it but the dark spire still pointed to the opening of that one tunnel. It was aiming for where he needed to go, rather than the abstract and general direction of his destination.

"It's already useful!" Seth exclaimed. He stowed it and picked up the torch to light his way through the dismally dark cavern. He turned the first corner and felt the darkness compress and surround him. He walked steadily, warily, cautiously through the darkness. He was very slow and stepped lightly so the rocky floor of the tunnel wouldn't trip him. He found his way through the perfectly carved, smooth tunnel and exited into a wide and dark area. Unable to see past the half-foot of light he had, Seth took a rash action and drew out his lightning Gem. He held it up and sparked off just a tiny enough bolt to catch the rest of the cloth on the rock torch aflame. Now he had a wider area to look, though what he saw was hardly comforting.

Bodies, long lost of flesh, impaled on icy spikes cast down from what seemed to be closed pits high above. Skeletons all across the floor, some only half the length of a normal man with only half as much of a body were frozen mid-crawl. Seth ignored it as best he could and pushed forward, the scent that he knew permeated the air blocked by his mesh face cover. He walked forward with his eyes focused on the ground before him and made his way across the room. There he encountered bodies frozen into a wall of ice, some preserved and other half-rotten deeper within. It was a thick wall that he could see through by only a blurry foot, but he could tell that it went on longer than he'd like to know. Men were stuck fast to the wall, frozen by their flesh, and then covered with water that soon froze into ice, made a part of the dreadful glacier for eternity.

"This isn't any natural death" Seth observed. "Spike-bottomed pits? Obviously not. This menacing wall of torture? It has to be man-made. Or...not man, but something else must inhabit this place. It is deathly cold, the region is nothing but ice. It wouldn't make sense for any man or group of men to live here all the time unless they could easily abandon the area. Or perhaps that _is exactly the case!_" Seth immediately shut himself up for fear that he was being listened to and carefully crept through the darkness in search of an exit. He came upon skeletal horror after horror and shied away from them, gathering a sick unease within his stomach at each new startling and scary discovery.

"This is sickening" Seth whispered. "What kind of beasts would do something like this?" Seth stopped in his place. He heard something coming, something both alive and spry with energy. He smothered the light of his flame by pressing it into the opened skull of a skeleton half-frozen by the chilling frost and hid behind a column of rock. A light came out from the tunnel he himself had entered the room from, held in the hand of a small creature. As he saw it better and as the torch in its hand burned blindingly brighter, Seth saw that he was indeed within the caverns that belonged to some living tribe, one of **Yetis.** These Yetis were just like all others but they were small, about the size of Seth, with furless chests and bellies and thicker heads of hair. Rather than strong beasts of nature, these Yetis seemed to be at least smart enough to design the layout of the wide standing room and its many traps for whatever reason they had to kill so many of the long-dead men.

"Uh-oh" Seth lowed. The Yetis were searching, quite obviously, for him. They sniffed at the ground and where Seth had walked, almost along the exact same path. They growled to each other as a sort of language. The one on Seth's trail kept his blue nose close to the ground and continued to sniff around, offering snide and sudden snorts and growls in retort. One larger Yeti, with a build more like a gorilla while still being no taller than Seth, entered last at the edge of the torch light that the negotiating Yeti held for the others to make use of by the orange light. Seth knew that, if found, his life would be more than forfeit. He started silently backing away and felt at the wall for something that was like, in some way, an exit tunnel. The wall was mostly rock, solid at that, and from his corner of the room he couldn't feel for opening at all. He began to silently panic he had no desire to fight the creatures, but from the looks of his situation, that was his only way out.

The biggest one sensed Seth from across the room. The danger of battle was loud and clear to its tiny ears. It growled, bearing flattened fangs from its lower jowl, an animal prepared for battle...

* * *

Meanwhile, far up above where Seth wandered cluelessly,

"_**HUUUUUUU!!!!!"**_ was the common sound, followed by the thuds and smashes as the great, powerful Yeti fought against the nimble and stealthy Samurai Jack. Its fists threw in hammer-swings down at the ground, smashing up plumes of white for the breeze to carry. Its eyes were still a steady glowing green and tainted with that villainous vertical slit of pupils. Jack avoided it as much as possible, unwanting to harm an otherwise seasonally territorial creature, and tried to get back on the right path. He ran at once a great distance from the Yeti toward the ramp, hoping to gain enough ground that the beast could not close. The Yeti crouched down where it stood some far distance away and simply jumped up high, turning and flipping in the air. Jack saw its shadow pass over the snow and thought for a frightening second that the Yeti was able to fly. He then jumped away, weighted down by the heavy fur and leather he wore, and landed just as the Yeti's fists smashed into the ground with yet another wild roar.

"This beast is relentless!" Jack exclaimed. "What can I do but fight it now?" Jack took out the Gem of Fire and aimed it at the beast. "Fire!" he called. A ball of flames formed just beyond the singing reach of Jack's fur gloves and blasted forward. The Yeti, with its strength and affinity to the harsh tundra terrain of pure ice, batted the fireball away easily, casting it back to Jack who took up his sword in both hands and sliced through the fire, parting it in the air into embers that flew around him. The Yeti grabbed two huge handfuls of snow and started palming them together into a dense snowball. Jack noticed his action as the prelude to an attack and clutched the Gem, charging up his own counter. The Yeti continued balling snow until it held a sizable bounder between its palms and threw it over its head at Jack. Jack grinned and aimed up at the dreadful snowball that flew toward him. He fired another dense bolt of fire from his fist and then charged forward. The icy boulder exploded into thick powder and began raining in an explosive cover.

Jack came in low, slashing at the beast's knee. The Yeti growled with pain and crouched its knee into the snow, allowing Jack to run up its sheer waistline and deliver another cut to its chest. He stepped off just above that cut to stun it with pain and stopped on its shoulder, stabbing intentionally into the shoulder bone to lessen the real danger of his attack. With the Yeti so doubled over in pain that it couldn't fight, Jack ran down its hunched back and jumped off with a flip to run toward the ramp he had spotted earlier. He was nearly there, and excited over his quest, when the Yeti stood again with its wounds all closed by the strange energy that invaded it earlier.

"_**HUUUUU!!!!!"**_ it roared. Jack turned suddenly to the Yeti and saw it charging. He took up his sword once more and jumped over a sweeping back hand. Then a striking slap hit him and he tumbled over onto the elevated plain where the ramp led. He rolled around for a moment, keeping his sword tight in his grip, and saw a solid veil of white rolling in. The winds had picked up during his fight and the snow had become harsh again. He pulled down the bear hood of his snow-white animal cloak and retreated to the rock wall that his Gem guided him to. The Yeti jumped up and began chasing after him. Jack made a flying leap up onto the ledge and planted his feet. He took out the Gem and kept his body crouched close to the face of the wall to stay on just a second longer, then held the Gem straight over his head, aimed right at the Yeti.

"Guardian Ifrit, grant me the power of **FIRE!!!**" From the Gem a mighty roaring stream of red and orange flames came. It hit the Yeti head on and pushed against Jack's standing body. He walked, keeping the fire aimed straight over his head, the weight of propulsion balancing his body to tread the sheer surface of the wall in his fur-lined boots as if he walked under completely normal circumstances.

The flames, as mighty as they were, did not stop the Yeti from chasing Jack. Though its fur was burnt it was not harmed and climbed up quickly. Jack started running up, released the fire stream for a moment, and gained sufficient ground from his foe to jump straight up along the rock wall. Though he could not jump the rest of its length, he gained enough ground and aimed down. The Yeti was huffing and climbing quickly, almost caught up with Jack already, and once more roared as Jack aimed his Gem straight down. The fire roared out once again and hit the Yeti square on its head. It brought up its arm to block and was halted. It was even pushed down as the rock wall was quickly torn apart by the baking heat of Jack's mighty fire, all while the force against the steadfast Yeti pushed Jack ever higher upwards like a steady jet engine. It all went well until the obvious happened. It was too hot for too long, and the rock wall began to give way. It cracked and hissed as the ice melted to water and boiled to steam all at once. Jack stopped and grabbed a hold of the wall, quickly storing his Gem in the pouch inside his coat where it warmed through to his skin and made his heart race with heat. He started climbing, very quickly, as the blizzard of snow had picked up once more.

"Almost there" Jack said with a grunt. The Yeti was farther down still with sheer malice on its face and embers of flame still burning in its otherwise pure white fur. It growled and punched into the rock wall, no longer solid but easily broken and cracked. The Yeti threw its arm up above its head and smashed repeatedly against the rock wall. It shattered and broke, sending cracks snaking upwards along the side of the wall where the ice broke as the rocks crushed and parted away. The cracks came up beside Jack and startled him into stopping. More cracks joined with the larger ones, and at once Jack found himself in a desperate situation. If he could not climb faster than the wall could break, he would surly be buried when it all fell. The Yeti, giving out one last roar of triumph, let himself fall and delivered its final punches into the base level of the rock wall. It started to fall apart from the bottom up, reaching Jack as he neared the summit all too quickly. Jack struggled to save himself. He leaped from falling rock to rock in the vain hope of beating the winds to continue his ascent, yet the ground grew closer and with it the hostile Yeti below.

Jack closed his eyes and faced his peril, head on, like a warrior, only to see an infinite black upon his painless landing....what had happened!?


	32. Episode 32

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXXII. Jack and the Ice Guardians

* * *

All was quiet in the cave of many bones. Seth did not idle and wait to be found by the trollish Yetis. He raced through the darkness, provoking hostility in the biggest guard of them as he fled in a wide arc around them. In the total darkness his black dress helped him blend in perfectly, though his hair still shone and reflected the light that came in through the ice, it was all just a passing glare along the floor to the animal Yetis. He finally made his way blindly across the room with a hand on his sword, ready to draw, at the side of the gorilla Yeti. It turned his way, glaring into a wide expanse of dark, and Seth became still. It looked around, still searching to affirm its suspicion, but scoffed off its primal tendency to an arbitrary glancing fear of the dark.

The torch-wielder returned, shrugging and grunting in its Yeti tongue to the other. They looked confused, and the one receiving the report seemed mad while the other was slightly shamed. Seth assumed that he had either lost whatever scent there was to find or that something else unfortunate happened. Seth managed to assess where the opening of the exit tunnel was, directly behind the stoutest, strongest mini-Yeti. He could faintly see it's outline against the distant held torch light. He saw his chance to escape at last, as the Yetis began moving out with a protestant grunt from the apparent guard and an irksome response of chiding from the other two. It just lowed and looked back into the darkness, at Seth, or in the direction he seemed to know Seth was stayed in.

Seth stood perfectly still, his feet parted on the icy floor and a knee dipped down so he could spring forward immediately to attack if needed. Or, rather than strike, he could simply push forward and through the darkness to the cave entrance he had memorized. The Yetis began to depart after all, led by the torch-carrier, and moved across the floor expertly. They knew where everything was intrinsically, they being the ones who carved the caves into hollow tunnels and connected them all together with an expert-level of masonry. Their strategic movement impressed Seth, and he found through their traveling that the exit was in fact not one built into the wall, but when they disappeared at last, taking the light with them, they went _downward._ Seth dare not spoke for fear that their tiny ears may perk to his voice, but he thought it ingenious in design how they made their exit from the room!

Something within him clicked. Though it was not equipped in his hand or near his blade, the lightning Gem in his pocket did pick up on that brilliant feeling, and the Gem of Curse sitting next to it did the same. It sparked itself active, and hissed lowly as it began to exude an ethereal smoky substance through the thick leather of Seth's coat. He finally moved from the darkness, forward just a half a step, when the blackness in his pocket reached his ankle, snared him and forced him to fall. He hit the ground as quietly as he could and slid his hands and feet to stand back up. When he turned his sword caught into a cluster of icy spikes in the floor. It clacked and clattered lightly in the ice and sang with a metal slicing as Seth tried to gently pull it away as it still stayed sheathed at his waist. Unfortunately, his actions weren't as discrete as he'd hoped. Seth managed to free himself, but he broke apart a frozen spike in doing so and the ensuing noise of it crashing and shattering against the harder glacial floor was so loud and echoed so much that it made Seth wince. His ears had become accustomed as his eyes had to the silent darkness for too long, and once he saw the glow of a torch already shining brightly from the borders of a narrow hole he knew he was too late.

"If I must fight" Seth said, retrieving the green-glowing lightning Gem that lit the area aroung him, "let it at least be something partially fair." The first one up the hole to inspect and see Seth was the torch-wielder, who wore a grimace snarl of animal anger and brandished in plain sight a short, sharp icicle dagger. The other thin, lanky Yeti came up after, with two daggers in hand, followed by the last brute that was already hooting and growling. As soon as they saw Seth, standing in his own pale green light they charged around the traps between him and them with full intent to attack the intruder. Seth drew his sword out with a quick swing and picked up a light gust across the flat icy floor. It stunned the two skinny Yetis, who stopped and puzzled over it, but not the brute one. It ran head-on for Seth on hands and feet, growling and snorting its way into his green light.

"Don't test me!" Seth demanded. He turned his sword around and swung, hitting the Yeti in it shoulder with the blunt side of his blade. "I won't kill you, animal, unless I _must!_" The Yeti grinned with malice, as if it understood, and shuffled away from Seth to the border of his glowing green circle of light. The other two came charging in, one swinging fire and shouting with animistic hoots, the other trying to stay to Seth's blind side and make a swing at him. Seth blocked the first dagger attack and kicked the Yeti away. Then, against the torch-wielder, Seth backed away and swung his blunt blade into the creature's exposed face. It slid away a distance and stopped to rub the ice weapon on its hit mark. Then the brutish Yeti came in with both arms and palmed feet forward in a wild leap. Seth hopped to the side and caught the Yeti on his blade. Taking the mighty sword in a two-handed grip, he swung the Yeti off and into a wall in the dark.

"I truly don't have time for this!" Seth exclaimed. He took his sword to his side in his right hand and quickly worked to fasten the Gem onto a chain attached to a metal bracelet he wore over his glove. It clipped on and stayed bright. Seth took a calming breath and dodged the next quick attack made by the smaller Yeti. It stabbed and swung wildly, without course or direction, and he kicked it away into the other one. Then the big one came running in again and Seth took his pose. With both hands on his blade, the right hand to steady and the left to draw, he stepped forward and the aura of light around him intensified extremely. Some brilliant maneuver was in his mind, and he was about to execute it when the primal gorrila-Yeti leaped at him again, this time with small stabbing implements in all four hands. The stream of time flowed softly and slowly around Seth. He could feel the air, the pressure closing in on him, and with his eyes closed he could see his enemies, standing all before him in a neat row. Beyond them was that mysterious portal they used, the hole in the ground that he fought to get to.

When he opened his eyes so too did he open the way. In a flash of movement, a super-human leap across space, Seth stopped beyond the Yetis with his sword drawn and even the light trailing behind him as his Gem slowly drifted through the air. Slowly the marks appeared. A random arrange of eight red marks marring the Yeti's white and blue bodies. Eight hits each in the flash of an instant. His movement trailed sparks of lightning, his sword was glowing, and all at once time resumed normally and he calmly started sheathing his sword. "Iai Art" Seth began. His sword hit the limit of its draw in his waist-side sling, and the Yetis were blown onto their backs by the gathered force of the multitude of attacks. The torch flew through the air and was caught over shoulder from behind by Seth. _"Hachikado Kaihi Ken!_(Eight-Gate Opening Sword)" He turned slowly as he approached the hole below and gave an arrogant smirk to his defeated foes. "Be thankful I was merciful, and only used the back of my sword." With that, a victory under his belt, he departed with a swift jump down the narrow hole, his sword hitting the smooth sides as he fell and scraping loudly up into the cave, a final taunt to the defeated Yetis...

* * *

For once, or possibly for a time that Jack failed to count, he was saved by divine forces and awoke from a painful sleep to a peaceful and serene atmosphere of healing. He slowly sat up from where he was laid and looked around. He was within a palace of pure crystalline structure, all ice and diamonds and clear blue light shining in from the ceiling of beautifully smoothed ice and snow. Jack thought he'd be colder in such a room, and looked down at himself to see that his thick furs were gone and he was dressed in his base clothing of a robe and sandals. Somehow, however, he was not cold. A hospitality warmed him from within. He felt welcome, peaceful, safe in the icy room. He hopped up from his bed of solid ice and tied his sash tied before walking. His sword was rested on a small pedestal across the room.

He took his sword to his waist properly and searched for his red Fire Gem. It wasn't in his inner-robe pocket, nor was it tied to the sash around his sword sheathe. It was gone, as far as he could tell, and in the cool blue room he could see nothing that could be red. Then, suddenly, a door formed in the sheer glass-like wall and slowly opened to a chilling winter breeze that froze Jack in wonder. A light shone through the other end of the portal and a drift of snow began passing in. Behind that drift, pushing it along with each calm and measured step, was a tall and beautiful woman of ice. Her hair was long and silken and from its very ends that were cut just above the ground flakes of pure white snow constantly fell. Her face and features were of a marvelously carved ice sculpture and her skin was a crystal shade of blue. She wore garments of flowing silk, light as a breeze, and each breath she took was a cooling winter wind.

"Hello" she spoke, possessing an enchanting voice beyond any mortal woman.

"Uh, hello" Jack replied. "Um....who are you?" She smiled and held out her arms, summoning shards of ice to hover over her palms.

"My name" she began "is **Shiva Indra**, the guardian of Ice that you seek."

"You are the guardian daemon of ice?" Jack said. Shiva nodded. "That is fantastic! Please, I am on an urgent quest to recover great artifacts of power. These Gems, one of which you protect, are of critical importance to myself and my friend. I humbly ask for your assistance and your permission to take with me that Gem of power on my travels..." Jack bowed his head down low to the glowing goddess of ice. Shiva tilted her head without dropping her smile and approached Jack with a carpet of snow preceding her and inching up to Jack's exposed toes. She took a chilling finger to Jack's head and tapped him.

"Rise, please, warrior" she said. "It is unfitting for a servant like myself to be at the respect of one as great as you, Samurai Jack."

"You know of me?" Jack said.

"Indeed" Shiva replied. "You have traveled these lands of mine before, and from those times I have known of you. From those who passed after and before, I gathered stories of you, and from the outside world which my daughters watch, we know much about you. You fight against evil, an impossible battle, and are the envy of all greater beings sealed away by the jealous grip of the all-consuming darkness Aku wields. Yes, Samurai Jack, I do know of you."

"Then" Jack said, excitedly skipping to the point, "will you be willing to join in my quest?"

"I cannot" she said. "I am the true guardian of that Gem no longer, though it is here. The Gem of ice, that which can control the frigid element that stops all motion and freezes water solid, it is here and I shall allow you to ask for it of its true source."

"You will?" Jack said. "Thank you, Shiva Indra."

"Do not bow your head to thank me" Shiva said. "We daemon spirits are merely the servants, tasked by a much greater power, to look over and protect these symbols of our power. Our knowledge, our history, all that which we have journeyed through time and space to gather. Come, Jack, and I shall have you speak to the true guardian of ice that you seek."

"Yes, please" Jack said. He followed Shiva, stepping his exposed feet into the cold snow and cringing with each marching stride he made, but grinning in the end. His quest for now was finished as soon as he came face to face with the Gem's guardian spirit. He was led by Shiva, a graceful and shining figure of beauty, through a great ice hall and into an ice living room, with ice furniture shaped like modern household furniture and a monitor panel embedded into the ice-cave wall, powered somehow to work and display a news broadcast.

"Boooriiing!" a girl's voice chimed. She changed the channel from the couch, not yet noticing the elder's apperance with her guest.

"Girls?" Shiva called. Three sprites looked up from where they sat. "Girls, I have a guest I'd like you to meet. You know him, I assume?" Jack stepped out and presented himself with a humble bow.

"Hello" he said. The girls seemed frozen in surprise for a moment. Then, all at once, they exploded with joy. Three girls of different age closed in on Jack. The eldest had hair of solid ice which covered one eye and swept down her back into curls. She was shorter than her mother only because she walked rather than hovered over the floor, and she wore a gallant silken dress that showed the sculpted curves of her maturity freely. The middle was a teenage sprite with light-blue skin but not of ice. Her hair was freely flowing but still frigid, like wheat frozen in a sudden blizzard, and her dress was more casual and contemporary ending with a frilled skirt and high-heeled platform boots. Then the youngest, an impish little girl, had fair skin and blue hair, like a fairy of snow whereas her sisters were solid ice. She held against her body in a hug a rabbit-shaped plush doll and smiled so wide her face was nearly lost between the sparkle of her wide eyes and the gaping glee of her grin.

"No way!" the teenage girl exclaimed. "It's Samurai Jack!! **EEEEEEE!!!!!"** Her squal and proximity to Jack forced him to wince back and be caught in the frozen, gentle hands of the eldest girl.

"You're even more handsome" she said seductively "in person than I thought. Then again, a broadcasted signal can only do so much justice for a man like you."

"Um...thank you?" Jack said as he was leaned further and further back by the eldest spirit.

"No fair!" the teenager exclaimed. "You share him right now!"

"Little girls must wait their turn" the eldest said.

"Momma!!!" the teenager cried. "Orda isn't sharing Jack!"

"He's not one to share" Shiva Indra said. "He is here on a quest. Now Jack, I present to you my daughters. My eldest, Orda; the middle, Ikscala; and my youngest daughter, Ima." Each girl smiled when announced and little Ima laughed sweetly. "Now girls, which of you currently possess the Gem I gave to you?" Just as Ima was about to speak up, Ikscala silenced her and picked her up with a coy glint in her eye. She whispered to her young sibling and a smile grew across her young face.

"Well what kind of quest would it be" Orda began "without a challenge?"

"That's right!" Ikscala said. "If he wants the Gem, he has to **find it himself!**"

"If you can tell which of us has the Gem" Orda explained "we will give it to you..."

"Along with our _self_ to accompany its power" Ikscala said with a coy giggle.

"Do you best, Mr. Jack!" Ima said sweetly. Jack turned up a corner of his mouth, not in a scowl or a smile, but in a defeated mark of shame, for he knew this was to be a lengthy battle he may not immediately win....

* * *

After much wandering and searching by means of the dark Curse Gem, Seth found himself lost in the endless array of caverns and caves. He sighed and stood in the middle of a widely made room, his torch nearly extinguished at at the last of its freshly-wrapped Yeti fur. The Lightning Gem dangled still from his wrist, but in his confusion and distress it could not glow with the maximum luster of genius and brilliance that it should. He looked in a panic and saw only two options: a path into darkness or a path he could see.

"If it's up to me" Seth declared "the lighter path should get me out faster. But knowing my luck, and the nature of caves, the path that looks to be closer to sanctuary is always the farthest off. I must consult other powers now...." Seth looked down at the dark Gem and saw a darkness that stood out from even the lightless opacity of darkness around him, one that stood out more as an object in his own eye rather than one he could simply see, and it pointed to the brighter cave. "Well who asked you?" Seth said. He aimed himself toward the darker tunnel and adamantly walked around its corner, right into a dead end. The tunnel stopped just a meter or so deep at the first curve and hit a wall of solid, frozen ice. Seth angrily backed out from the tunnel and across the room to the light tunnel. "Last time I ignore divine forces" Seth mumbled.

As he went through the crystal-lined cave he found more and more light coming from farther ahead. His earlier misconceptions were put aside when he lowered his mask on a move of pure faith and sniffed the air. He smelled a crisp, humorless cold that seemed to be above the damp and errant air of the infinite caves he had wandered. Even the smell of oils in his torch was drowned out by this natural smell, the smell of icy-cold air, one that he never pictured himself celebrating. He raced forward, throwing away his still warm torch, in favor of the open ice air. Once he found himself clear of walls and with a roof of pure snow vaulted so high over his head, he ran a hand over the wall of ice beside him and sighed with his mask up.

"Finally" he said. "It feels like it's been too long since I was stuck in those caves. I wonder-" Seth's head moved as he talked, and when he turned to where his hand was he had to pull away from the shock. Inside that ice, somehow, was the body of a fast-frozen Yeti with a roaring, open mouth. Seth awed at it and moved down the path along the glacial wall to look within it. He could see for a far distance into the ice and saw many similar things: he saw Yetis, giant polar bears, some dagger-wielding penguins, arctic warriors frozen solid with their laser guns broken, knights in shining armor with swords of fire, and even the fire around the swords seemingly crafted only of deep-blue colored ice the way it was preserved. Seth continued moving along, hypnotized by the tragedy of it all and the billowing sounds of wind he heard nearby, not careful at all of where he was stepping.

Yet again, the dark Curse Gem he kept in his pocket snared his feet up and tripped him, causing him to fall onto his stomach and start sliding down a solid-ice path that led down a winding path. "Wha!?" he shouted. Seth looked up quickly and saw the sky, saw the blowing snow and the light of the sun blocked by a thick blanket of clouds, and he groaned. "Nooo. Whyyy!?" Seth slid down a spiral path into a pit, an enormous pit dug miraculously out of solid ice that he had been walking along the whole time. At the bottom of the pit, not out of sight of the open sky but far from it, Seth managed to keep himself from injury by pushing his arms into the slippery ice ground at the last second and flipped in the air to land on his feet. Once balanced again he stood in awe, for he now stood in the shadow of an **enormous sleeping blue-skinned Dragon.** Seth could only gulp and stand in respectful terror at the great beast, hoping silently that it wouldn't wake just because of his presence.

Then it awoke, its eyes of gold shooting straight open, and it huffed out a breath of snow through its nostrils as it rose up its head to stare Seth down. Seth could only curse at himself and step away. The Dragon growled and started to stand on its mighty, taloned claws. Its growl was like that of a moving mountain, one made of ice, and all the air around it was frozen and unbreathable. Seth gripped the hilt of his blade on instinct and observed his environment. The put was big enough to fight in, almost purposed as such, so he moved and drew the Dragon's attention to him as he dashed like quicksilver through the soft mounds of snow in the wide circular arena.

"I'll just have to do this, won't I?" Seth figured. "A Dragon like this, in such a place. I can assume as much as I wish about it, but undoubtedly, instinctively I know that this beast is, at least, in part responsible for this tundra of perpetual blizzards! Fine then! I'll slay it! For the sake of ease with which I can travel through this glacial palace of rock and frozen stone, Dragon, **I shall slay you!!!**" The Dragon snorted and roared. Its breath froze around Seth and hardened into ice.

".....damn!" Seth strained. His body was unresponsive and frozen in ice. Even with his challenge issued, he felt damn foolish with his sword at least undrawn in his frozen pose....


	33. Episode 33

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXXIII. Seth and the Blizzard Dragon

* * *

Seth stood frozen in a block of solid ice. The dragon of ice held up its head and looked down upon its challenging prey with icy eyes, unfeeling of any sympathy or emotion but of its animalistic sense of protection. The dragon whipped its tail around and smashed into the frozen-solid wall beside Seth, shattering the rocks that broke away and landed like lead weights, doubly dense and powerful from the ice that was frozen in all its thinnest parts. The rock and ice of the mountain combined into the great glacier pit where Seth now stood, facing down a lethal opponent only a single blow away from a total victory. He flexed his muscles as much as possible and the thin veil of frozen breath finally gave way with a crack. The dragon's ice-spear-tipped tail came sweeping in just as Seth freed himself and jumped. He cleared the tail's swipe, landed, and jumped up again as the tail came back. The dragon drew its tail back finally, just as Seth landed and tried hitting the tip with his sword. It was hard as steel, perfect ice.

"Fire melts ice" Seth said "but lightning will blow a hole through even the thickest barrier! Come, **Thundara!**" Seth held out his lightning Gem and gathered a great spark of power in his hand. Then, with a punch, he struck the mighty beast square in its chest with a bolt of lightning. Rather than burn or singe like Seth had hoped, the lightning had impacted on the dragon's chest and then dented its perfectly rounded underbelly. The beast reeled back and grunted in pain, then turned its head and glaring eyes back down to Seth. "Well...it hurt, didn't it!?" Seth shouted, still claiming the attack as triumphant. The dragon took in a deep breath and Seth took up his sword. "I can cut through anything with this sword. _Anything!_" He charged the lightning Gem with power and let it flow into the blade of his long sword. The dragon blew a freezing blizzard at Seth, all ice and snow in a hollow cone of swirling air.

"HA!" Seth shouted as he chopped forward. A straight swing straight down, parting the blizzard perfectly away from him. The dragon's breath continued and intensified, but Seth's blade continued to cut and glow with the power of lightning. "My sword is electrically super-heated now! This weak little wind will do nothing against me!" Suddenly, from out of the wall of white ice breath came the dragon's huge ice-tipped spear of a tail, driving straight to Seth's side. He saw it and started to retreat. He held his sword at his side, still parting the ice with a constant, steady block, but the pit he ran in wasn't perfectly flat. Blocks of ice and chunks of rock had been knocked loose from the dragon's previous tail-swipe, and Seth tripped into a running, perpetual fall. He jumped and hopped his way across the ground to regain his balance and finally stopped.

Taking his sword up over his head, allowing the breath to come at him for just a moment, Seth attacked. He hit the tail square on, parted the wind around him with the powerful slash and deflected the driving spear into the frozen-solid ground. It was pierced through at an angle and cracked all the icy earth beneath Seth's feet. The dragon's breath stopped and the space around Seth was clear of any white carpet that had been produced. Everywhere the dragon breathed was white now, except the circle around Seth that his mighty attack had produced. Still, he was tired, and the extra force the lightning in his blade had lent was now dissipated, returned to its source along the edge of his blade. The dragon roared, facing up to the open, covered sky at the top of the pit, and jerked its body to recover its tail. The broad and mighty spearhead-tip was drawn out and shattered the ground Seth stood on. He jumped away, spreading the broken mess around with the power of his leap, and landed some distance away, standing on top of the loose blizzard snow.

"Let's see what this can do" Seth said, equipping the Curse Gem. He held it forward and the dark beam shone straight at the dragon that now lowered its mighty head to face him down. Seth adjusted his resolve. No longer one of brilliance, now he saw a darker path. He became merciless and dark in his thoughts, and the Gem responded to his emotions by shooting several black tentacles of pure magic at the dragon's face. They reached and wrapped around the beast's face, blinding it and snaring its mouth shut, silencing its roar and stowing its deadly, freezing breath to be huffed out in steams from its nostrils. "Excellent!" Seth exclaimed. "That's two things I don't have to worry about: it seeing me and breathing on me. Now I can attack! I'll go for the spot the lightning weakened, where its flesh seems warped!" Seth ran forward, bounding over the snow, seemingly gliding along with his sword held at his side, ready to attack the moment he saw an opening available. The dragon, though blind, was still dangerous, and swiped its huge claws madly with stomps and slashes. Seth had to jump away and desperately avoid an incoming claw by ducking into the snow bank at his side that was blown away by the brushing stroke of wind.

"Oh no!" Seth exclaimed. "It can't see, so it's just attacking at random! Alright, I'll just use my lightning again!" Seth replaced the Gems once more and the black tentacles keeping him from lethal harm disappeared. The dragon lowered its head and breathed in a deep breath of air. Seth was holding his lightning Gem out in front and his sword behind, so arrogant that his attack would prove well, and was enveloped completely in the dragon's icy breath. His final thoughts made him smile warmly, but oddly his body was not yet frozen. The Gem in his hand was shining bright and sent a blast of energy through the air, up the dragon's stream of breath and zapped its mouth shut. It reeled back with a muffled roar of pain and hit its head against the wall. Seth looked down at the Gem and held it tight. "Ice and snow, basically, are water. Therefore, even if I have to use magic, I can use ice or snow as a conductor and shock this thing into submission!!!"

With that in mind Seth went on the attack immediately. He ran forward and leaped onto the dragon's right claw. With his blade wound at his side he stepped in and sliced into its arm, right up to the frozen-hard bone within, then cleanly drew his blade out and jumped away as the dragon threw its claw up and roared in pain. "Heaven Fall!!!" Seth exclaimed as he fell through the air. He aimed his sword straight down and stabbed it through the dragon's claw, nearly touching the icy ground underneath it. Now both claws were injured and Seth had the advantage of the dragon's body being open for an attack. "I'll use a close-range attack and weaken its defense, then cut open its throat!" Seth rushed in wit just that strategy in mind, but the dragon was relentlessly strong. Even with its claw stabbed, its arm still worked, and it brought its claw in to guard its exposed chest before stabbing with its tail right in front of Seth's path. He jumped back and threw a bolt of lightning. The ice-spear tip of the tail had the energy crackle around it, but it didn't lead up to its flesh. The tail was more solid crystal or diamond than electricity, and wouldn't conduct.

"With that tail" Seth said "it has both an offense and a defense. So the first thing I have to do before I can kill it is chop off its tail..." Seth took a pose, both hands on his sword and hilt perfectly horizontal next to his right shoulder. The Gem was attached to the bracelet holder on his right wrist and shined brilliantly. "Right then. Off with its tail!!!" The dragon roared as Seth began his charge. The blizzard up top only continued to worsen...

* * *

Now was the pit beginning to quake from the mighty clash of powers. The dragon's roar cast a thick coat of ice over everything that its breath touched and bound falling rocks to the walls by the thick lengths of ice generated out of the air. Seth kept his resolve firm. The cold didn't faze him anymore. He charged up to the dragon to provoke it and then retreated once its tail swung. Then he charged again, dodging the tail only to double-back against it and attack it with a swift series of powerful cuts. His sword was deflected off with each attack against the dragon's frozen hide, but he made progress in marking its flesh with shallow scratches against its scales.

"Just a matter of time" Seth said "but if I don't end this fast it'll surely get angry and use some greater hidden power on me." The dragon leaned its head back and took in a great breath of air. Then, throwing its neck forward, it breathed out a solid stream of pure, white snow. Seth ran away from it and forward, his goal the dragon's tail. With the lightning Gem on his wrist he sparked his sword up with more electrical heat and cut into the dragon's snow-breath, jumping through an opening he slashed. The dragon had to stop its head and pull it the other way to continue following Seth, who was already getting dangerously close.

"Fly!" Seth shouted. **"Thunder!!"** Seth stabbed his blade forward and drew it to his side in a single blurred motion. The lightning in his sword had gathered and shot forward as a bolt, right into the wound on the claw that was guarding the beast's chest. The claw became numb and the dragon's whole body jumped. It stopped blowing snow and had to stall to shake off its pain. Suddenly, it felt heavy and rapid footfalls running along its back. The dragon growled and jerked its back suddenly, forcing Seth's feet to slip on the icy surface of its armored scales. He slid down and fell off the dragon's side and face-down into a snow drift. The dragon crawled on injured claws into the wider area of the pit with its tail dragging behind.

"Just as I planned!" Seth said, springing up from the snow with his sword already glowing with energy. The dragon's tail was just within range. Seth brought up his sword for a brave, overhead slash attack. He jumped up and descended just as the end of flesh met the beginning of solid diamond growth on the beast's tail. He powered his sword down, through the ice coating, through the scales, the flesh, the bone and the blood and then in an arc through the solid-frozen ground before all the energy finally wore off. He stood still in a calming breeze as the dragon froze up, stunned with pain, and began to curl up its de-tipped tail. His sword, from the heat, began to bend down into a straighter, flatter blade, then cooled with steamy streaks and a loud hissing. "Victory...." Seth lowed. The dragon turned around quickly and pushed itself up off its injured front legs. It stood on its stout two hind legs, body erect, neck straight up with head glaring down toward Seth, and wings expanding slowly. Then they snapped fully open and the dragon roared, shattering all the ice around it!

All the rocks suspended from falling fell and carried with them a cloud of razor-sharp ice dust. Seth looked up and saw the sharp hail coming. He planted his feet in ankle-deep snow and took his sword in both hands to guard himself from above. He slashed rocks apart and they landed away from him in bits and shattered pieces. The blades of ice were hit away just as the solid, heavy chunks were cut many times over before they reached near Seth's head. His blade was a silver blur of motion, and only the sparks of his blade contacting the rocks and ice were visible of his motions. Even his arms, bound up in black, vanished in their masterful motions. The dragon took in a deep breath, preparing once again to spew its freezing breath Seth's way with the hope of finally finishing him. Seth finished his frantic defense and turned to the dragon across the round pit area. He began running forward just as the tunnel of snow and ice and freezing air started at him. He dodged to the side at the last moment and deflected some flying rocks of pure, solid ice blasted from the beast's mouth. The dragon followed him, curving its neck and tilting its head to try and follow and catch the quicksilver blur of a man running around the flat area.

"That point" Seth began, looking up at the dented space of its exposed underbelly, joining the chest with the neck. "It's weak still. I have to attack!" Seth held his sword down at his right side, left hand forward on the grip and right hand holding it in place at the pommel. "I won't have a second chance! I must, _will_ succeed!!" Seth ran forward, towards one of the rounded walls, and summoned the lightning power with his own flash of brilliance within. His boots became charged with crackling static energy. Each step he took created a foothold in the solid glacial wall, just deep enough for him to step into and stay up with. He began running on the wall, defying gravity with the sheer speed of his sprint and the locking foot holds each step made. His route was straight. If he ran for just a few more moments he could leap from the wall and stab the dragon right in its throat. Then the battle would be his! However, the dragon continued to follow his actions, and once the thick stream of snow and ice hit the wall Seth was shaken right off of it. He managed to take a final step forward before he was forced to leap off, barely high enough to reach the dragon's knee, let alone its throat, and in his anger Seth's body blindly let loose with its only remaining option.

He threw his sword, like a javelin, through the air. With that last spark of instinctual energy, the sword powered through the weakened shield of ice, cracked the scale armor in a wide crater of shattered impact and sliced all the way up to the hilt into the dragon's throat. Seth landed in a sliding, awkward roll, and recovered as the dragon began stomping forward weakly with its pierced claw slowly rising up to grasp at the sword in its throat. It tried hard not to move its head or neck as the sword would slice its insides at any stray movement. The dragon picked at the blade, but its clawed hand was so damaged by the fighting that it couldn't clutch and only poked the sword to cut its throat from within. Then, the beast began to panic. Using the last of its strength, in an act propelled by animistic fear of perishing, the dragon turned its mouth up to the opening of the pit and gave a final, dying, mountain-shaking roar. Seth fell down flat on his stomach and stayed that way as everything around him shook violently.

"Is it an avalanche!?" Seth wondered. He covered his head and pressed his forehead against the clear ice floor. Coming up from an insurmountable depth was a shape, far beneath the ice, that kicked itself up and came closer and closer, growing larger and larger. Just when Seth thought the shape, which had enthralled and captivated all his senses away fro reality, could grow no larger it just continued, lithely sliding through the infinite ice beneath the ice as if it were swimming through water. Then it approached, and through the light of the white snow that began coming down as a thick blanket from above, Seth could see just for a moment its true immensity as it opened an eye to him, the pupil of which was even bigger than him. Black wrapped in yellow wrapped in red, a three-fold iris surrounded by white with crawling ocean-green veins surrounding from the sides. **A beast beyond recognition** was the last sight Seth saw before he was covered by the dragon's final attack, an avalanche of snow.

* * *

The blizzard up top died down immediately, and for once the harsh lands were peaceful and white. The many creatures of the mountain that had long lived in hiding of the harshness of the weather came out and saw into the sky as if it were a miracle. The Yetis and the mini-Yetis came from their caves, pushing away the much-amassed snow and stepping out into the cold but calm-winded mountainscape. The patriarch of each Yeti cave took up fistfuls of snow and tossed them into the air, howling at the top of his lungs and pounding his chest for his cave's victorious survival over the deadly weather.

In the center of the mountains, where the hole opened up into the dragon's great den, the snow still fell calmly through that cavernous opening and onto a sea of white so huge that it covered all the way up to the highest levels of the pit. The snow reached closer and closer to the upper brim of the pit, filling it up constantly, with piles falling from above and mounds shifting like the dunes of a pure-white desert.

A clump of snow fell down and shook a mound into clearing away. From the snow that rolled away, a sword was revealed, but only its black handle and the beginning of its red-splattered blade. The snow continued to clear away as the sword seemed to rise itself up to the top of the white sea with a will of its own. The light shone down on the sword's red-stained steel and let off a glint of light that reflected all over the shining crystal walls of the mighty cave. For a brief moment, the pit flashed like a strobe, a signal to the rest of the world that it was indeed there, and that it had not vanished entirely. Far down beneath the snow the dragon's corpse had frozen into a block of ice, no longer flesh or blood but the element which it guarded so fiercely.

Just as the sun's brightness wore off through the clouds, and the pit became dark, lit only by the brightness of the snow, a black hand dug its way up through the snow and felt around blindly. It reached over and touched the end of the sword's hilt. Then, greedily, it started grabbing for it and dragged it forward with its fingers to take the sword in a powerful grip again. Seth, still mostly buried in snow, was heard laughing weakly while holding his mighty blade straight up from above the blanket of snow. Whatever else happened, right now, the only thing that mattered was his victory. In the end, he had won, and whatever end that accomplished was his own to see through.

In the very least, now he could rightly call himself a Dragon Slayer to whomever he pleased.....


	34. Episode 34

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXXIV. Jack and the Shiva Sisters.

* * *

Not in ages had the era-long warrior known such discomfort without an enemy to face. The tension around him was palpable. Shiva had left him with her three daughters in a wide sitting room with several chairs. Jack took the one across from a sofa where the middle-aged Ikscala lounged length-wise, her eyes fixed steadily on the Samurai with sharp glints in the corners. Orda was sitting upright and proper in a chair with her hands folded on her lap. Ima was bouncing up and down with her rabbit doll that Jack noticed was made of compacted snow held together by her obvious snow-spirit powers. All the room was cold, as was normal in the ice den of an ice-empowered guardian, and all the chairs and seats were made of ice and snow. Yet, somehow, Jack's body was temperately comfortable and the cold wasn't bothering him unless an uncommon breeze went across his back and shivered his spine.

"So?" Ikscala said.

"Um...." Jack replied.

"Aren't you gonna start yet?" she asked again, pushing herself up with her arms anxiously. "Momma said you have to get one of us to give you the Gem, right?"

"Uh, yes" Jack said. He rubbed his neck to soothe the chilly feeling around it, which had nothing to do with the cold. "That is correct, I suppose."

"So ask away!" Ikscala exclaimed, suddenly appearing right in front of his chair with her face held just an inch away from his. "Ask me anything! Absolutely anything! You wanna know what my favorite color is? Or my favorite TV show? Or my favotire season? I bet you can guess that one easily, right? I'll give you a hint though-" Eventually Ikscala's words became so fast and meshed together in their rapidity that Jack lost all the meaning that she was trying to get across. Then, suddenly, she was frozen by Orda, the oldest, and slid back as a block of solid ice onto the couch where she was slowly unfrozen and left to shiver and hold herself from the cold. "Y-y-y-y-y-y-you're a ch-ch-ch-ch-cheater!"

"I apologize for her" Orda said. "May I call you...Jack?" Jack sensed an earnest womanhood from her, a true sense of both elegance and patience where her sister was otherwise totally lacking.

"Of course" Jack replied. Orda broke down into a fit of girlish giggles and took her teenage sister's hands as they bobbed up and down in glee. Jack looked over to the Ima and saw her happily bouncing and generally ignoring the scene her sisters were stirring up with her bunny doll in a tight hug.

"So, Jack" Orda began, regaining her feminine posture and demeanor in an instant while her sister continued to shiver and smile, "if you want the Gem now, you'd better start asking some questions."

"F-f-f-favorite c-c-c-color!" Ikscala said through her chattering teeth.

"Depending on the question" Orda said "we may or may not reveal our true knowledge of the Gem. Only one of us was chosen to be its guardian after our Mother decided to create us. That one must have the most knowledge out of any of the other choices and must know everything there is possible to know about the Gem's inner powers."

"Very well" Jack began, "then I have a question for you, Orda. Should I concentrate myself fully into a meditative state and enter the Gem where the guardian may reside, what option would I have to summon them forth from the Gem to help me in fighting off my enemies?" Orda just sat still and smiled. Her eyes slowly widened and she turned away with her hands at her cheeks looking incredibly flustered. Obviously, she didn't know.

"I know that!" Ikscala said. Ima had her hand up too, surprising Jack. He had been so sure that Orda, in her arrogance, would know everything regardless, but her two sisters knew about it before her. Jack decided to sedate the easily excited Ikscala and called to her first. She jumped up to her feet, no longer shivering violently, and had to brace herself from zooming across the room and into his lap. "When you enter the Gem, like how you said, it means that your emotions are in perfect synch with its guardian, and _they_ chose to call _you_ in to perform a **summoning.**"

"Summoning?" Jack said.

"Yeah!" Ikscala cheered. "It means you can bring that Guardian out to use the Gem's full elemental power! Like, say, for the Ice Gem, you could summon whoever it's guardian is out and they would use all their power at once on anything at all. Then they'd return to the Gem itself, but you couldn't use it for a while after that."

"That explains much for me" Jack said. "Still, some things are better left to be answered by the daemon himself."

"What'd you ask?" Ikscala said, sliding over across the ice as Jack held his head down in his hand to think. She bent down and looked up at him, startling him back to sit upright again. "Did you ask me what my favorite movie or book series is because I'd just want to talk about that for days and days and-" She was silenced before her words got too fast, this time by Ima, who simply pointed at her and buried her in a mound of snow from above.

"Move, sissy!" she exclaimed. Ikscala bolted back to the couch and the snow mound fell down, quickly blowing away in a magic wind that swept past Jack and made him shiver. Then a new idea formed in his head, a new question to test the girls and add to his own logic that helped him deliberate the Gem's guardian.

"Could each of you explain" Jack began "what your specific ice-based powers are?" Ima finally started, as Jack looked directly at her, despite Ikscala standing on the couch and waving her hands around for attention. Ima smiled brightly and pointed her hand to Jack. A sparkle of mystic energy came from the tip, and she made a slow circle in the air.

"Snoooow!" she said. Suddenly, indoors, it was snowing! Jack looked up and saw snow flakes falling from the ceiling and then gathering rapidly on the floor. He stood up on his chair and sat on the back of it as the snow quickly piled up and became shin-deep. Orda let herself sit in it and Ikscala fell backwards safely into it. "I make it snow! Anywhere! Then poof!" She waved her finger at the snow, and it was gone in a puff of powder. "Then I make it gone!" Jack hopped back down and sat regularly on the chair.

"That is a beautiful power you have" Jack said. "There would be many people around the world who would be grateful to see snow at any time of the year." Feeling praised, Ima smiled and giggled, kicking her legs in her seat and nuzzling her face into her snow bunny. Ikscala was back up and sliding herself over the back of the couch, but Jack's finger drifted across her and to Orda.

"My power" Orda began "is more scientific than anything. I have the power to lower any maintained temperature and keep it at a certain level. In other words, I can freeze any object simply by willing it to be frozen. If there is sufficient moisture in the object, it will be worked to the surface to preserve it in a block of ice that replenishes said object of moisture as it melts, so if I so choose, I can freeze a person in a block of ice and then simply let it melt without much hard to them at all. If there isn't any moisture, the object is frozen dry."

"Jack, have you ever explored a hyper-frozen desert?" she continued. Jack shook his head. "It's a wasteland in arctic regions. There is no snow or ice, only barren rock and badlands. The winds are so powerful that they can blown a standing excavation vehicle over in a second. Any living thing that wanders into such a place is preserved in instant, frozen mummification. This power extends to the air, wherein I can freeze any particles that are in the air _to_ the air, thereby making a wall of hanging projectiles or suspending traps over the heads of pursuers to be dropped in a second."

"I see" Jack said, nodding his head. "Such a power would indeed be useful in many cases." Orda gave a slight bow and blushed, her icy skin turning a deep blue at her cheeks. "And you, Ikscala? What is your power?"

"Finally!" she exclaimed, hopping up to her feet. "I was starting to think you wouldn't ask!" Ikscala clasped her hands together and kept her fingers woven together. Then she stretched her arms up over her head and a wickedly sharp wind started to whip up. Then she thrust her connected palms down, and **a field of long, thick, ice-blades shot up from the floor!** No one was harmed, and the blades avoided her sisters enough to let Ima's eyeline to the TV be unimpeded, while Jack was closed in by a cage of the thick, metal-like frozen spires.

"This is my power!" Ikscala exclaimed as she stood barefoot and unharmed on the tips of two ice-blades, looking down at Jack. "I can make blades of ice appear from anywhere, even the sky! And lookie!" She clapped her hands together and the blades all sank back into the floor just as fast as they had appeared. Then, slowly pulling her hands apart, she held a sword, a perfect ice-sculpture of Jack's own sword that she had memorized the exact shape of after meticulously viewing the myriad of repetitive news screenings about the infamous Samurai over his notorious life. "This way, you could wield _two _swords! And, you know, you'd technically be wielding _me_ into battle, and I'd cheer you on all the way! I'd be like a sword and a supporter, not that a sword wouldn't support you. In fact, you could probably to more work with a sword than with any single person in a ba-" Again, Ikscala was frozen for her own good, sword and all, in a thin but impenetrable shield of ice. Orda lowered her hand after the act while Ima sat staring intently at a TV, ironically broadcasting footage of Jack speeding through a street via a hovering sentinel while being chased by a multitude of robotic guards.

All the time, Jack was in a state of thought, and made careful noting of every answer he had been given. All the girls, their personalities, and everything about them he compiled in his head, and to the end he reached he left the room with a humble bow. Ikscala's mouth irked up as she cursed her older sibling for hindering her yet again while Jack got away, free at last from the tension.

* * *

With a great sigh Jack made an entrance to what he thought to be an unoccupied hallway, but instead found a grand hall of gilded crystal spires and columns and golden-braced archways, all leading to the further end where a glorious shrine made of saphires and diamonds etched and carved into ever-frozen ice was laid. That sculpture of a figure he knew well enough was so radiant and beautiful that the chill on his neck went unnoticed as Shiva Indra came up from behind. Jack noticed by the reflection in the gems and turned around with a bow immediately.

"Forgive me for intruding" he said.

"Do not worry so" Shiva said. "You are our guest here. Though, I'd like to know why you are not still with my daughters."

"I mean you no disrespect by not accompanying them" Jack said "but I feel that their presence would make my deliberation harder."

"I understand that" Shiva said. "Orda and Ima are very good mannered when it comes to guests, but Ikscala is always so quick to act without thinking. She is at such a spontaneous age now. It's hard to keep her down sometimes."

"I have asked them a few questions already" Jack said "but I feel that I am certain as to who possesses the Gem I seek."

"And who might that be?" Shiva asked. "If you are right, then I shall seek her to give it to you. Otherwise, I won't let you know at all."

"Then it must be Orda" Jack said "the eldest. Her power is the most developed among them. Ima's is a sweet but infantile power, only to make snow without any sense to controlling Ice itself. Ikscala's is reckless and brutal, and not at all the nature of the calm and cool element. Orda seems to be the most emotionally aligned with what is perceived to be 'icy' though without being cruel or cold-hearted. She seems to personify Ice the better of her sisters, and therefore, must be the Guardian of the Gem." Shiva looked down upon the Samurai for a minute, not breaking her humble and motherly smile, then slowly shook her head.

"Oh" Jack said in defeat. "Then, I shall go and ponder...over here." He pointed himself to the exit of the hall and braced himself to a cold wind that Shiva made as she turned around.

"Do not hide to think about it so" Shiva instructed. "The answer will come whether you wish it would or not." Jack turned and gave her a bow of thanks, then left again. He did his best to avoid the living room, as he could hear Ikscala and Orda hotly bickering from rooms away. It was obvious over what. When the sound of ice exploding out from the floor and the sharp whips of wind that followed came, Jack knew he was better thinking far away from that room. He soon found stairs and went up to a short hallway with six rooms. He chose to slowly pace this hallway while ignoring the doors, but was stopped after the first one he passed opened.

There was Ima, lacking her bunny and now holding a Yeti doll made of snow, who looked awed to see Jack alone in her hall. Jack turned and smiled to her, deciding to stall his thinking long enough to give the child daughter some attention.

"Hi, Mr. Jack!" she said.

"Hello, young Ima" he said, crouching down near her. "What is that you have?"

"It's a Yeti!" Ima said. "They live in the mountain cause it gets too cold for them!"

"Ah" Jack began "but don't some Yeti venture out into the cold as well?"

"Yeah" Ima said "but they're way bigger and meaner! They have big teeth and are really, really big and growl like this! Huuaaaagh!" Seeing a child imitating something that nearly killed him not much earlier made Jack laugh. They both heard something smash, something huge and heavy and made of ice, in the rooms below.

"Do your sisters always fight like this?" Jack asked.

"Not all the time" Ima said. "Sometimes someone wanders up here, searching for something, and they found them out in the snow and help them get better. Orda does that a lot. Sissy just talks about you all the time."

"That must get tiring" Jack said.

"No!" Ima said. "Jack is a super-hero! You're never boring at all!" Jack felt oddly humbled being exclaimed about by a child. "When I grow up, I wanna go out into the world and fight off evil things, just like you! I'll find a Yeti that's hurting other animals on the mountain and make a sword to slay it with! Watch!" Ima aimed an arm forward and gathered from the air flakes of snow that compacted and formed into a small toy sword. "Hyaah!" she shouted as she swung. The sword stayed in form for several swings, then broke apart on a stab, leaving her hand empty. Jack took a hand to her head and smiled at her.

"The world always calls for heroes" Jack said "where the voices are the softest. I am sure, in time, you will find yourself to become a true hero, and realize then what being a true hero must mean to you. It is not always slaying a monster that makes you a hero, young one. Remember that."

"Well, you're the best hero ever" Ima said "and I know you don't just slay monsters, but you always fight against evil, no matter what! That's what makes you the best ever!" Jack smiled, his heart thoroughly warmed by the snow-spirit's words. "I don't want you to have to stay here too long! Samurai Jack has a mission, right?"

"Well, yes" Jack said, "but I need the gem before I can leave." Ima handed him her doll. Jack took it, and suddenly it fell apart as plain snow in his hands, which moved together as the powder floated off and revealed, to his astonishment, **the ice-blue Gem hidden under it all**. "It is here! It is real! Ima, you are the guardian of the Gem?" Ima shook her head and smiled. "Bis Sissy is the guardian. She and sissy are always trying to get mommy to teach them more about it so that they can outdo each other for being the guardian. Mommy asked me to hold it so she could decide who got it by who knew the most about it."

"And so Orda does" Jack said. "I find it strange that she did not know about the summoning, though."

"We just learned that last week" Ima said. "But Orda was playing with a traveler in his room, so she didn't hear mommy talking. She plays too much with other people, sometimes." Jack, being not one to let an important moment go to waste, held the Gem tight and felt its icy powers. Alone, the Gem could only recognize his emotion and respond to it, and in his cool and arrogant triumph, the Gem was chilling his entire body with the reverberations of power within. Jack turned down to Ima crouched back to her level on both knees.

"Thank you, Ima" he said. "I know you know how important this is, so I'd like to give you a gift. Is there anything in particular of mine that you'd like?" Ima thought about it for a graceful second, then pointed to his head.

"Your hair-thingy" she said. "Teach me to make my hair like yours!" Jack obliged with a smile and undid his hair, letting it flow down to his shoulders.

* * *

"You're a cheater!" Ikscala shouted at her older sister. "A cheating cheater and a hussy to boot!"

"I'm a woman" Orda said. "I do whatever I can to get ahead. That's just the way it is."

"That's stupid!" Ikscala exclaimed. "You're mean! Jack hardly paid any attention to me because you were always butting in and being a nuisance!"

"I think you have something in your head switched" Orda said. "Weren't you the one being so obnoxious to him? Getting so close he couldn't breathe? And then, on top of your suffocating practice, you nearly killed him with your ice blades! You were never fit to be the Gem's guardian. You're too reckless and uncontrolled."

"Well you're stupid!" Ikscala shouted.

"You're acting like a child" Orda said. "Please, just cease this. I'm going to find Jack and apologize on all of our behalf." Orda got up and walked out of the room, leaving Ikscala to pout on the sofa. Orda had barely made her way to the adjoining pantry when Jack suddenly stood in her way with his hair down. Ima was behind him with her hair up in a knot like Jack's usually was. Flustered by the awesome sight of Jack with his hair down, Orda's charismatic feminine posture broke and she and she had to brace her smiling cheeks with her hands.

"Miss Orda" Jack began, "I wish for you to accompany me at once so that I may continue with my quest."

"But I haven't the Gem" Orda said. "You must first-" Jack held out the Gem, and upon seeing it Orda's blush turned her face full cool blue. "B-b-but when?"

"I have it to him!" Ima said. "You know, Jack has lots of bad guys to go beat up, cause he's a hero! He has to fight evil! We can't keep him here forever!" Orda looked down at her child sister with a curious yet moved expression. She saw the wisdom that the child spoke with and nodded, understanding where such a profound and mature sense of urgency came from. Her sister was right, and Orda agreed.

"Noooooo!" Ikscala shouted, already in mid-air and flying toward Jack with her arms stretched out. Jack stepped back out of reflex but Ikscala was frozen in the air by Orda's power. "It's tooo soooooon" she said through the sheet of ice covering her.

"I am sorry" Jack said, "but I must go. There is still much for me to do, and many mystical Gems yet to gather. I have found my stay here to be among the more memorable events in my journey, and I won't forget that my life was saved by your family." Jack took a humble stance and grabbed Ikscala's hand as it stayed frozen in the air to kiss it. She couldn't feel it happen through her frozen skin, but she still managed to crack the ice around her face enough to give a beaming smile. "I must reclaim the Gem left by your mother, and then I must leave."

"I'll get myself ready" Orda said. "I'll just be a moment. I'll see you soon....Jack." She turned and walked through the room to a hidden crystal flight of stairs that went up. Jack turned and went for the same grand hall. There he would meet Shiva Indra, reclaim the Gem of Fire, then take with him the Gem of Ice and venture out into the endless blizzard to find his ally Seth. However, in a passing glance out a round crystal window, Jack saw that there was no sheet of endless white blizzard snow. There were flakes falling calmly, without wind to stir them, and a perfect view beyond them of the long and distant snowy mountainscape...


	35. Episode 35

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXXV. Jack and the Yetis of the West

* * *

Jack slid down a long and winding mountainside path of ice and smoothed rocks, the frozen exit to Shiva's domain, his hair billowing undone behind. He had recalled the practice he had not but days ago in the Goblin Gorge, sliding down sheer rock in a high-speed pace, now only channeling the difference of the sheer cold surrounding him. With the Gem of Fire in his hand his body was warmed right down to his shoes, which allowed him to slide without getting stuck as the wooden teeth of his sandals heated the ice into liquid that quickly froze behind him again. The Gem of Ice was stored in his inner-robe pouch with the elegant guardian Orda inhabiting it and patiently waiting for her chance to act.

That chance came faster than Jack wanted. A swift wind blew Jack off course and he slid off the smoothed path and tripped himself on a jutting rock out of the edge of the icy path. He fell a few yards into a thick drift of snow and groaned as he rose back up. The ground beneath him started to move in response and he found himself astride the back of a Yeti.

"Be careful, Jack!" Orda called into his mind through the power of the Gem. "These Yetis are of the West mountain-face! The one we rescued you from was of the South."

"What is the difference?" Jack asked. He soon noticed the first one. These Yetis were much taller than the others. Their bodies more resembled giant men than gorillas. Their snow-white fur covered down to their tows and fingertips and their heads were much less pronounced. What Jack saw as a perfectly round drift of snow, almost like a covered igloo, was actually the incredibly rounded head of the Yeti. Their eyes were wide and yellow and round. Their lips were fleshy and pouted out from under their fur under their flat noses that curved gently down their faces. They were simple looking creatures, but they had a terrible reputation.

"The Yetis of the West" Orda explained "are ruthless and sadistic! If they find a traveler they beat and taunt him, eventually breaking his legs or arms and leave him in the deadly cold. They are true beasts with no pity or even purpose as they do not live on the mountain at all! They reside in the valley caves and only come up to hunt and purposelessly kill the other Yetis of the mountain!" Jack was appalled. His disgust for their disrespectful and all-around detestable description was only pushed back by the fear that he had been called attention to. He heard some loud footfalls from behind the tall Yeti he now stood on and turned with a start as another, more stout, Western Yeti coming from around the corner of the slide he was blown from.

"That is a dangerous Yeti in itself" Orda explained. Jack hid himself by covering his black hair with snow from the Yeti's head and tucking his flesh into his white robe. "It can inflate its own body and expel great gusts of wind. It knocked you off the path just a moment ago, I believe." Jack understood. He stayed perfectly still with his heels keeping his body pushed up on the shelf of the Yeti's highest jutting vertebra that led into its perfectly domed skull. The tall Yeti started to move, taking a step forward while swinging the arm opposite its moving leg, just like a man would walk. The snow fell from Jack's head and exposed his black hair to the wind-blowing Yeti, who saw and blinked at the samurai. The stout creature stomped its feet to the snow ground and took in a deep breath. Its chest swelled up nearly twice its size and its cheeks puffed out so much that the skin underneath the fur started to peek through. Then it puffed out a powerful gale which pushed Jack against the domed head and straight over it. Jack was flung through the air and caught in an instant by the tall Yeti's quick and powerful arm.

"Quickly! Your sword!" Orda exclaimed. Jack was able to get his sword out and stabbed the Yeti's hand to make it let go. It winked one of its wide yellow eyes at the pain and dropped Jack back down to the rocky ground. The Yeti towered over Jack without emotion in its eyes. Its lips parted to reveal its perfectly squared teeth rowed together inside its big mouth. It seemed to be smiling, or at least bearing its teeth to Jack, as it stood before him with a battle intent.

"Don't be lax" Orda warned. "You must fight for your life against this enemy. Sadly, I won't be much help to you against it, as it is already naturally resistant to the cold."

"Then I shall use fire!" Jack said. He aimed the fire Gem at the golem of a beast and blasted out a powerful, compact ball of fire. It hit the Yeti's chest and pushed it back a few steps, but that was it. The Yeti was not burned or damaged and simply patted the fire out with its big palms. Then it looked down with a burning glare through its rounded eyes and stomped its huge foot forward. Jack was shaken from his feet after the quake of the stomp and fell down. The Yeti rose its other foot up with the intent to crush Jack completely. Jack fired another flare into the exposed flesh of the Yeti's foot and managed to knock it off balance and onto its back.

Jack jumped back up and sensed danger coming at him. He jumped to the side just as the stout Yeti landed with a crash where Jack had just stood with the intent to crush him. It turned around and inflated its body again, blowing a huge gust at Jack that pinned him to the sheer rocky wall. Jack took his sword and Gem together, holding the Gem in fist against the handle of his blade, and charged forward. The Yeti took in a deep, quick breath and leaned forward to throw Jack back again, but its effort was vain. Jack held a sword of fire and stood strong, pointing it forward. The wind parted at the fiery blade, cool air drastically shrinking away from the hot, and Jack was spared the Yeti's attack.

"Stab when it takes in air" Orda said "and equip me! I shall end this!" Jack nodded and dashed in. He swung his sword to draw the Yeti's defense. The beast stepped away and to the side of Jack's swings, equally as fast as the warrior despite its bulky size. Jack continued his offense, pushing the Yeti further and further back as it watched his blade swing through the air. Then, when it reached a sheer drop down, though only by a few feet to an icy glacier shelf, the Yeti acted on instinct and inflated its body. Jack threw the fire Gem up, pulled out the Gem of Ice from within his robe, stabbed into the Yeti's inflated body and tapped the artifact to his blade. Orda summoned her power and sent a wave of it along Jack's sword. The magical steel channeled her powers and let the course out in all directions, freezing the Yeti from the inside-out.

"That will do" Orda said. "You may draw you sword, Jack." Jack did so and looked up and the now pure-ice Yeti, round like a boulder with arms and legs. The dense, cool air hissed out from the narrow cut and pushed the Yeti over the short drop where it shattered like a glass ball on contact with the hard ground. Jack turned away and bowed his head in reverence for the fallen beast. "It is not your way to kill, is it?" Orda asked.

"I do not wish to harm innocent lives" Jack said. "In such cases where my life is threatened, it is permissible, but not directly desired. I know death shall come, and to these beasts, none too soon."

"Holy Dharma!!!" Orda shouted in a short fit of fangirl-ism. "You're so damn cool!!"

"Yes, thank you" Jack said modestly, glancing back at the Gem. He fixed his battle glare on the Yeti and the many stirring mounds of snow in the field before him, all of them dome-headed beasts that stood up tall and long-armed with emotionless glaring eyes and teeth. "Now please focus! A battle is at hand!"

"Sorry" Orda said. "I guess we better get to work!"

* * *

Seth walked through the windless valley of endless mountains and snow, his boots pushing down the soft and powdery mass beneath him with each step. He was a black shadow with a silver tail that moved across the rolling whiteness of the snowy valley with a glimmering weapon in hand like a frozen beam of light at his side. He was no longer the simple Gem Seeker that he was mere hours ago. Now he was a warrior, Seth the Dragon Slayer, a title he was determined to carry with the greatest pride. Suddenly, Seth fell to his knees and hands. He was too tired to carry on. The battle with the icy beast that he had so narrowly escaped taxed his body to its utter limits. He was barely conscious anymore, yet he stayed awake and tried his hardest to carry on.

"No good" Seth said. "I don't think I can keep going. It's not the cold that's getting me, my body's just so damn tired all of a sudden....I need some kind of jump-start. If I can just get somewhere that I can be seen, Jack is sure to find me." Seth realized quickly what he could do. The answer was in the problem itself. He stood up as much as he could and propped himself against his sword, then took out the lightning Gem from his insulated coat pocket. It was shimmering nicely and pointing off as a beam of light to the nearby mountainside. "Great, I'm close by. That'll make this less painful..." Seth took the Gem to his exposed neck and thought back on his moment of epiphany. The boost of energy from a source of pure energy would be enough to power his body long enough to get to safety! The Gem zapped his whole body with a surge of electricity and he was at once awake and lucid.

"UUUAAAHHHH!!!!!" Seth screamed. "I feel like I'm on fire! I've gotta MOOOOVE!!!!" Seth dashed through the snow with amazing speed, sprinting like a quicksilver shadow of a far-distant cloud. In his run Seth had to slow down upon seeing a strange sight out of the corner of his eye. He saw what looked like huge rounded snow drifts moving up out of the ground and assuming huge human forms. He thought his mind was simply going from the overdose of energy he had just taken in. He shook his head as he sprinted and hopped off of an unusually dense mound of snow, thinking nothing of it, and flew briefly through the air before landing in his quicksilver dash yet again. The Yeti he had stepped on rose itself up out of the snow and opened its wide yellow eyes, tracking down the obvious black figure retreating rapidly into the distance. It rose up to its full height with its massive palms full of snow and packed together a dense ball. Then, winding back its arms, it threw the snowball at Seth. The apparent attack landed just to Seth's side, not hitting but startling the fast warrior into a slower pace as he ran backwards.

"What was that!?" Seth exclaimed. He saw more and more figures popping up from the ground, a whole troop full of round-headed Yeti beasts with markedly human characteristics. "Are those Yeti? Those big lumbering things? They don't look at all like the Yetis I saw before...." Seth disregarded it, as he was quite far away, and turned to run forward again. He reached a sheer wall of ice and sprinted up it with the lightning Gem heating the metal soles of his boots to stomp quick holes into the great wall's side. The Yetis behind Seth kept packing together boulders of pure snow and throwing them. Their actions didn't dictate any real instinctive or natural finesse. At best, they were heaving their heavy snowballs out of the sheer pleasant feeling they got by attacking an unknown creature, so they continued until Seth finally took a stand at the peak of the glacier. He sliced at the snowballs, exploding them on contact with his electrified sword, and glared down at the advancing, ever-increasing horde of menacing dome-headed beasts.

"If it's a range game, you won't win!" Seth declared. "My sword can cut through anything! Metal, bone, time or space! It's an instrument of pure power!!!" Seth swung his sword with such speed that the flash of light it produced vanished like a bolt of lightning before him. A wave of slicing energy sped through the air, pulled together by powerful electrical magnetic forces, and hit a Yeti square on the chest. It was thrown backward, tumbled over itself smoothly and finally rested with its broad, flat tongue hanging out and its fur slowly staining itself with a deep red. The rest of the Yetis paused in their attacks to look back and see their fallen comrade with empty, round eyes. Seth charged his sword and held it back behind his back with an anxious, panting grin. "You giving up? Knowing what I can do now, are you ready to surrender to me, the Dragon Slayer!?" The Yetis all turned to him and their lips parted. Their mouths opened wide and down past their collarbones, big yawning maws with huge open throats lined at the front with gums and perfectly rowed teeth. A monstrous roar shook the valley suddenly and Seth was nearly knocked from the slick surface he stood on.

Once the roaring died down the first Yetis from the back started running forward. Their athletic and muscular bodies allowed them to move at an incredibly swift pace. Their arms pumped with their legs, like how a human would run in any desperate flight, and their bodies were leaned forward as they ran to increase their momentum to travel. The air pushing against them rolled over their domed heads and offered their bodies little actual resistance, granting them even quicker movement overall. They were faster than Seth at a glance and came en mass to destroy the warrior. One jumped from the ground at the base of the wall where Seth stood atop clear up to the top, its hands just reaching up to grab at the sheer surface of the wall. It hung there for a moment, then started to drop with the ice still in hand. Seth had retreated already and cut a swath through the ice, leaving the wall's sheer face an impossible slope for the beasts to scale.

"I may be a Dragon Slayer" Seth said as he ran and looked back in a panic, "but there was only _one_ dragon! I can't seriously take on all those beasts! Even as good as I am, **I have human limits!!!**" Seth rounded a quick corner, slid under a narrow fallen rock and jumped across a wide gap. He ran around the edge of a short mountainside pathway somehow carved out of the sheer ice and rock from some meticulous hacking, and stopped to rest. "I can't keep up....with my body." Seth clutched at his heart and tried to sheathe his sword with his right arm. "My heart...is racing....like I'm running a marathon, even though I'm not moving...this is very bad. I have to get my heart-rate down!" Seth, out of desperation, struggled his way off the curving path and back to a wide and snowy plain between two scaling mountainsides. He fell down to his knees and opened the fabric of his shirt. Then he took a handful of snow and shoved it into the breast of his clothing, right next to his heart. He winced at the sheer coldness of it and it started to melt in an instant against his hot skin. He persisted, however, cooling his head by rubbing it in the snow and stuffing snow down against his heart while keeping his body as stretched out and flat as he could.

"Is it working?" Seth wondered. He wiggled his toes and felt them. He could still feel his fingers and pinched around his body until he could feel something through his thick clothes. "I think it's working. I'm cooling down....but getting tired....that's _not_ too good. I don't want to have to be rescued by Jack if I can help it." Seth stood up, feeling his heart-rate had slowed down to a safer level, and started to shamble away across the plain. His vision began to blur slightly and he became lightheaded. "Not good" Seth said. "I need to...lie down..." Seth stopped and rested against a rock, making a quick slice without fully drawing his blade to make sure it indeed _was_ a rock. He fell down and started to drift off, hoping not to all the while. Still, the desperate state he was in forced him to fall. He was in no condition to carry on. His heart continued to slow, slowing itself down so much that he could no longer remain conscious, and Seth passed out entirely.

* * *

Seth was asleep for no more then a minute when the winds picked up again from the West. They blew the hair from his face and gently swept at his skin to wake him up. He swatted at the winds and opened his eyes lazily, seeing a blurred vision approaching him. At first it was a distant and unseeable form. Seth closed his eyes and reopened them out of force. The vision became closer, but it was still blurred and hard to make out. Then Seth blinked hard and opened his eyes again, viewing past a hazy cloud of his own frozen eyelashes. He looked up and chattered his teeth, trying to form some words, but his body gave out too soon and he slipped back into an unconscious state. The figure, the owner of his vision, approached to his body and took a careful, dainty hand to his face in inspection. It stroked down along his jaw line, carefully grabbed his chin and turned it from side to side.

"Well" said the girlish owner of the hand, drawing away from Seth's face, "he's at least hot, but I can't believe he's out of it already." The youthful spirit of ice Ikscala was standing over Seth, protecting him under her divine authority and power as she wanted to do. She looked back to the West, the direction she had come from, at the peak where her home was at. It was a far distant spire of ice and rock, so far that it became nothing but a shadow, the center of all the mountains in the region but far from the tallest. "You must be Jack's companion, the one he was traveling with" Ikscala began. "It seems like you managed to kill our pet dragon in your questing. What an idiotic quest that was! I can't believe Jack would take on an apprentice, no an amateur, like you! He's just such a great man that you couldn't ever keep at his pace...." From the narrow mountain path, a Yeti came. A growling and fist-clenched Western yeti with eyes glowing a fierce and rageful red.

"Oh you" Ikscala said. She threw an arm forward just as the Yeti pounced and drove a patch of icy blades from up under it. The Yeti wasn't skewered but stabbed skin-deep multiple times and lifted from the ground. "Don't you try messing with me. I'm going to defend this hot guy until the hotter guy comes around!" Her blades retracted and the Yeti fell to its chest. It managed to push itself up and growl. Its battle-calling low alerted the others that climbed up the mountainside like a dangerous swarm of beasts to aid in its battle. The spoiled creatures, sadistic by nature and ultra-defensive to each other against their would-be predators, huddled closer and closer together in the effort to intimidate the icy spirit. And it worked.

"Oh, no!" Ikscala exclaimed. "I can't fight this many at once! Mama's gonna kill me if I lose to these freaks!" Suddenly, out of nowhere, a thick blanket of snow blinded the Yetis and surrounded Ikscala in protection. The Yetis were confused and dazed by the thick falling blizzard but Ikscala could see right through it, like a one-way veil. No snow fell near her or Seth either. She looked back with a grin and saw her little sister with her hair done up like Jack's using her powers to create snow everywhere.

"Hurry up and fight, Sissy!" little Ima said.

"Alright" Ikscala said with a seething glare in her eyes. She summoned up a barbed spear of ice in each hand and a coat of icy armor to cover her. The joints were all spiked and spined, giving her a devious yet knightly appearance. "**For that hot guy!!!**" Ikscala charged into the snow to do battle, all for the sake of the unknown Seth sleeping in the protected center of the storm....


	36. Episode 36

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXXVI. Jack and The Yeti War

* * *

A snow-colored head of flat fur poked itself up from the ground. With beady yellow eyes and thick, fleshly lips the beastly Yeti stared for a moment before opening its wide mouth with rounded teeth to growl. It brought up an arm and swung it down hard, bursting the snow drifts at its feet with a punch. A patch of white flew away within the snow as a somehow detached part and landed away. It was Jack, still fighting the Yetis with his sword drawn. In his left hand he held the Gem of Fire. Tied to the pommel of his sword was the Gem of Ice. He held his sword out forward and his free arm straight back, showing the glow of both auras together as they met to create a whirlwind around his body.

"The Heat and Chill" Orda said, communicating through Jack's mind, "from the two Gems meet to create this twister around you. That's a pretty brilliant maneuver, but what good does it do?"

"Watch" Jack said. He intensified his grip on both Gems and increased their output of power. The wind that shielded him grew into a whipping gale that picked up all the snow around him. Jack was hidden behind a veil of pure white that moved along with him. Through the whipping of the wind he saw his target, the monstrous Yeti, and dashed forward with a frozen energy surrounding his blade. The Yeti swept its arm through the snow and wind to sweep Jack away, but the warrior was clever and well-versed in fighting monsters. He had jumped up high and avoided the Yeti's arm swing. He burst through the wall of white with his sword drawn back and stabbed into the Yeti's arm. The wound quickly froze over and a thick shell of ice spread across the Yeti's body, sealing it inside a frozen prison. When the beast was totally frozen, Jack pushed off its icy shoulder with a clack of wood and twisted his body to aim the Fire Gem forward. With a shout he launched an explosive fireball and shattered the ice around the Yeti's body, blowing the monster off the steep clifface where they fought.

"OOOOO!" Orda squealed. "That was so cooooool! You're so coool, Jack!"

"Thank you" Jack said over his shoulder. "Please, now, concentrate. Try to find for me my friend by searching for a Gem of Lightning."

"Very well" Orda said, regathering the charisma in her voice. Within the Gem she channeled all her power and silenced the power over ice from within. All of her power went with her search and none of it remained to power Jack's sword. Having predicted such a thing, Jack switched the Gems and stored the Ice one within his robe as another Yeti stomped his way with arms up and ready to swing. Jack jumped up right into the Yeti's palm and was held tight. He grinned and gripped the handle of his sword with a tight, righteous firmness that sent out a searing blaze into the metal of his blade. The Yeti was forced to let go and dropped Jack. Before he landed, Jack swung a wave of fire into the air that hit the Yeti and singed its fur. Jack gathered a thicker aura of fire around his sword and delivered a heavy vertical slash to the air. Another powerful wave of fire blasted against the Yeti and exploded on contact, knocking the beast unconscious and sending it rolling and tumbling backwards.

"I've found something" Orda said. "Look to the West." Jack turned his head, using the sun as his compass, and saw an isolated snowstorm raging on an elevated mesa of ice and rock. Jack held the pommel of his sword up and saw a beam of guiding light pointing toward the storm. However, on every side of that storm there was no sight of anything to create it. The sky was almost cloudless and there was hardly any wind. What snow fell was tiny and light. There was nothing natural that could make such heavy snow materialize, and therefore, Jack knew it was not natural at all.

"Could it be?" Jack said.

"I believe it is" Orda replied. "My sisters are there, fighting the Yetis over something. I can feel the feint presence of magic over there as well. I believe your friend is over there, and my sisters are fighting to protect him for some reason. Knowing Ikscala, she's obviously fallen for him."

"At least we needn't worry about making haste" Jack said. "Your sisters are strong enough to protect him until I arrive. However, with enemies as powerful as these, we cannot leave their safety to chance. We must make our way there as well to help them fight."

"I agreed wholeheartedly with you, Jack" Orda said "but we can't move yet." Jack turned back to his field, the flat rock covered in snow where he and a small army of giants with emotionless eyes and scowling maws stood between him and a sprint to the connecting land bridge. Jack's face sank with disappointment for a moment. Then he snapped it back to his usual sternness during battle and leaped away from a powerful Yeti stomp. He landed on the beast's shoulder and jumped away just as it brushed its hand at him. Jack landed on another Yeti's rounded skull and stayed for a second before the Yeti became aware of where he was. Another Yeti, behind Jack, noticed him and swung a hard fist at him. Jack jumped away on reflex to the rushing of air and let one Yeti pound the other unconscious from behind. Jack landed in the snow and smirked. Seeing their fighting habits had made their weakness clear: they weren't working together, so Jack could have them fight each other.

"I have a plan" Jack said. "Do you have enough power to help me finish these beasts off?"

"I have all the power you'll need" Orda said. Jack took her Gem in his hand and chose to sheathe his sword with the Fire Gem still tied to it. He then leaped clear over a Yeti's head, his arms crossed and his face with a cocky grin to taunt the beast. The Yeti wound up its arm and swung, slugging another Yeti straight in its face. Once Jack hit the ground he crouched down and dashed between the legs of the standing Yetis, using his Ice Gem to lead a past of lingering icy frost in the air behind him. The Yetis foolishly stomped at the ice and slipped on it, causing them to fall onto each other like dominoes. Jack dashed out from under a falling body and jumped up, delivering a leaping kick to the side of a Yeti's round head. He bent his legs in to cushion his impact and bounced off just as another Yeti threw a punch at him. The Yeti it hit didn't fall but retaliated with a backhand. Soon an all-out fight broke out between all the Yetis at once. In the confusion, Jack smirked and fled, seen only by the Yetis that too late got pulled into the confusing brawl as the white snow and fur of their bodies quickly started to turn red.

* * *

Wielding long blades of diamond-hard ice, Ikscala held off the constant advancing horde of huge Yetis with a great brashness which imitated bravery, all for the sake of a cute boy she didn't know. Ima kept stirring the snows with her powers, protecting Seth from the Yetis with a thick blanket of spinning snow. Ikscala stabbed her long ice swords through the snow and drew them out with thin coats of blood dripping down. She turned around and swung again near Seth, cutting a Yeti hand that was reaching through the thick snow.

"Are they catching on?" Ikscala wondered. "Ima! Turn this blizzard up!"

"I'm trying, sissy!" Ima called. "It's hard! And there's lots of bad monkeys everywhere!"

"I'm on that!" Ikscala said. She glared through the snowstorm and saw a pack of Yetis heading her way, all close together and in a marching formation. Ikscala stabbed her ice blades into the ground and pushed them forward. A razor-sharp field of ice stalagmites opened up from the ground underneath the Yeti horde, stabbing through their feet and legs to pin them in their place. "This is easy! It's like target practice!" Suddenly a Yeti tackled through the snowy shield and swung its broad arm right into Ikscala. In defense, the snow sprite shot blades of ice from her skin to protect herself and stabbed the Yeti's flesh. She tumbled backward and stopped herself by protruding many small spikes through her feet and stood her ground against the beast.

"Sissy!" Ima shouted.

"I'm okay!" Ikscala called. She retracted the spikes from her body and summoned up a large icy blade from the ground. She took it in hand and wielded it like a sword in both hands against her Yeti foe. "Look Ima!" she called in excitement. "It's just like Jack! I'm fighting like Jack would!"

"Yay!" Ima called. Ikscala dashed forward and swung her huge icy blade at the Yeti, allowing it to shatter on impact and cover the beast with a myriad of small cuts. The blade she had left was curved and carved precisely to resemble the sword of her idyllic hero, which she kept solid as a real sword. The Yeti attacked her again, swinging its mighty arm at her, but she simply rolled away and sliced a freezing cut into the Yeti's skin. The wound became hard as ice and the blood flow to it stopped, a somewhat helpful side effect to having its skin opened up. Ikscala continued to attack, boosting herself up with an ice spire form below to jump up to the Yeti's round head. She reformed her sword with a gathering of ice to make a thick, diamond-hard hammer and smashed a dent into the Yeti's domed head. The beast fell down with a whimpering moan and crashed to the ground. Ikscala landed safely and looked around. More and more Yetis were starting to break through the snowy barrier.

"Ima, keep it up!" Ikscala shouted. "We're doing great!"

"If you say so" Ima said, straining herself to keep her snowstorm raging. The veil started to thicken and constrict around Seth. Now only the rock on which Ima stood and Seth were plainly visible to each other. There was no visibility elsewhere and the torrential winds that blew the snow everywhere started to push the giant Yetis and confuse their sense of direction. Ikscala was unaffected by the wind of ice and dashed through the snow, finding Yetis to slash just inches from her own face. Once she ran into a leg or a hanging arm she jumped away and made a quick slice of her blade through the snow. Then she turned and fled, knowing they would try to fight back blindly in the snow. Ikscala's plan was working up until a blinded Yeti made a raging blind swing that hit her and threw her into the side of another Yeti. That Yeti grabbed her before she fell and pressed her between both his hands.

"Ugah!" she exclaimed. She was in too great of pain to activate her powers, but she still held her ice sword tight in her hand. No matter what terrible pain she endured, she refused to let it go. She tried to use it by scraping the Yeti's skin with the blade, causing it to instantly freeze. However, she was locked tight in its powerful grip. She could not break free at all. As the Yeti's hand froze over it only served to lock its fingers and palms in place to keep crushing her even after it had given up. Ikscala was in grave danger of failing her mission and thought of her only safe way out: becoming ice and shattering herself. As a mystical being it was much harder to kill her than it seemed, but by abandoning her physical form for too long, it would leave Ima exposed to the monsters and leave the nameless hot-guy she was protecting unprotected. She steeled her resolve and endured the torture for the time. She refused to abandon either her sister or the nameless good-looking stranger in the middle of a battle!

Suddenly, as if fate had answered her bravery in a rally of arms, a great icy boulder flew through the snowstorm and smashed the Yeti square on its domed head. It released its hands and Ikscala leaped from them in a rush. She threw her sword down and lanced the Yeti to the ground, erupting thick bladed spikes all around the area to finish the beast off. She knew she had won, despite the harsh covering of the field of moving snow, and regrew a blade from the ice of her own skin.

"What was that?" she wondered. Not too far off, outside the snow shield but on the same plateau, Northern Yetis came in great numbers holding rocks over their heads and beating their chests in anger. Among their numbers were a number of fallen Western Yetis as well. The oppressed had arisen from the harsh and eternal blizzard with a burning tenacity. A war long started was conintued on even ground as the spiteful Western Yetis became under siege from within the blinding snowstorm by the vengeful Yetis of the North! Ikscala raced back to Ima, sensing her through the thick gale of snow, and summoned up a wall of thick blades of ice to protect them from the random rage of the Yetis.

"What's happening?" Ima asked.

"Looks like we got reinforcements already" Ikscala said. "The Northern Yetis are fighting the Western Yetis!"

"Is that good?" Ima asked.

"That's terrific!" Ikscala said. "It means we don't have to fight them unless they get too close to us! We don't even have to worry about not being seen, since we aren't their targets anymore."

"Does that mean I can stop yet?" Ima asked.

"Sure!" Ikscala said. Ima lowered her arms and dropped her powers. The winds all died at once and the thick blanket of blustering snow fell gently down, ending the apparent blizzard just as suddenly as it had started. The many Western Yetis looked about at their fallen few comrades and up at the flying rocks that sped their way. They saw their sworn enemies, the Norther Yetis, heaving boulders and pounding their chests tauntingly, some distance away. The Western Yetis started moving their way, running fast and side-stepping the many boulders that came at them. One Yeti ran into the icy wall first and decided to turn its rage against it. The thick ice blades were smashed down by the Yeti's fist and a sharp shrapnel fell down. Ikscala jumped to protect her sister and then tried to dive down to protect the handsome man.

With a flashing glare of silver, the man was on his feet with blade drawn and hair following in a gallant trail behind his head. He stood with his back to Ikscala and the Yeti, his face hidden behind his drifting silver bangs. The Yeti fell down with a groan and the sharp ice that came his way was turned into a sparkling dust around him. All at once Ikscala's mind seemed to melt from an explosion of lustful energy as she saw the man. He turned around, a victorious smirk across his cheek and **glowing green eyes** meeting hers. Ikscala could do little but hold her cheeks and squeal at his coolness.

* * *

As Jack ran toward the snowstorm he noticed the Yetis from before. The normally docile, gorilla-like Northern Yetis were holding a powerful front against the evil and animistic Western Yetis. Jack could see that a great battle was breaking out, one which he had no energy to participate in, between the feuding races of the Yeti mountain.

"This is unprecedented" Orda said. "The Northern Yetis have never had the incentive to launch an attack like this before. What could have provoked them?"

"Perhaps the same force that provoked the one which attacked me" Jack said. "There was a certain ferocity in that Yeti that was not natural. As if it had been manipulated by magic."

"It's not unheard of" Orda said. "Besides, there are many mysteries of this mountain. Whether it is a magical force or simply their own will to bravely act on their own for once, it is unknown to us at this time." Suddenly the snowstorm that Orda had honed on burst itself clear and vanished. A wall of icy pillars shot up in the middle of a great crowd of the monstrous Yetis. Many of them were down on the ground and injured, staining the white snow and icy rock with red blood. Jack increased his speed and made a flying leap across the field. He landed in a roll and jumped from incapacitated beast to beast in his race to the wall of icy blades. Where the other two Shiva sisters were, so diligently fighting, surely there he would find what they were fighting for. Just as Jack neared the wall a Yeti stirred awake and stood up. It spotted him and attacked with a stomp.

"Get away from the wall!" Orda exclaimed. "If it smashes it down the shards could hurt those behind it!" Jack nodded. He unsheathed his sword and dashed forward. Powered with ice, the cut he delivered froze over and struck a chilling pain through the Yeti's body. Jack thought he had won, but when he looked back he saw the Yeti stumbling towards the icy wall. It smashed into it and held itself up, the pain numbing its body and forcing it to lose consciousness. The Yeti fell forward but was then blasted back and smashed to the ground. Jack saw Seth standing with his sword unsheathed. Behind him were the Shiva sisters, huddled together on a rock above him. A strange green aura surrounded Seth's body, one which Jack could easily see, and then fell down to the ground to disappear. Seth fell after it, hitting his face against the icy rock ground which jolted him awake.

"Agh!" Seth groaned. "What happened? What's going on?" Seth tried to pick himself up but his leather slipped on the glossy ice of the ground. Before he hit the ground again he was grabbed by the elbow by some unseen aid and pulled up to his knees. When he gained his breath again, Seth looked up and saw his friend, the mighty living legend, Samurai Jack standing over him with a grin. "Jack! You're alright! Did you find the-" Jack held up his sword and let Seth see the Gem of Ice, tied so tightly to the pommel. "Excellent! I managed to slay a giant dragon earlier! I'm not sure how much help that was..."

"_You_ killed the _dragon?_" Ikscala exclaimed. "The dragon at the bottom of the glacial well?"

"Yes, I did" Seth said, forcing himself to stand. He turned and saw the girls awing at him with mouths agape and eyes sparkling. "Uh...I'm sorry, but who are you?"

"Uhhh..." Ikscala moaned, dumbstruck by his handsomeness and unable to talk.

"They are the younger Shiva sisters" Jack explained "Ikscala and Ima. Their elder sister, Orda, is the current guardian of the Ice Gem. They inhabit this mountain as their home and all have powers over the element of ice."

"We saved you, mister long-haired man!" Ima said. She was quickly abandoned and left on the rock while Ikscala performed a sudden flying hug attack that ensnared Seth and knocked him down into a cushion of snow.

"YOU'RE SO HOT!" Ikscala exclaimed. "I wanna make an ice-sculpture of you the size of this whole mountain! I want to carve your face into a glacier! **OOOO! You're so COOOL!**"

"That's enough!" Orda announced. She froze her sister from within the Gem and Seth pushed her off as chivalrously as he could.

"She is a bit..." Jack began, trying to place the proper word without being insulting.

"Fanatical at times" Orda finished. "It seems she and Ima defended you when the Yetis began to attack. It's a pity I wasn't here to watch my sisters fight beside each other. It's a bit sad to think that I won't get to see such things for quite a time, actually."

"Don't worry, big sissy" Ima said. "Me and Ikscala will be the heroes of the mountain and make sure all the bad things like blizzard-lizards and mean Yetis don't cause trouble for anyone anymore!" Seeing Ima making such a heroic declaration made Orda proud and nearly tearful at the thought of leaving. Jack smiled at her and nodded his head. Ima grinned back and summoned up a smiling snowman out of embarrassed glee.

"I'm terribly sorry that I can't stay too long" Seth said "but I'm already dizzy just from standing. It's been an ordeal of a day, quite honestly, and we must be moving on."

"Nnnnnnn!" Ikscala shouted from her frozen shell. Jack knelt down at her side and turned her over.

"You are on your way to becoming a strong warrior" Jack said. "Be sure to train your powers for good and help those who cannot help themselves with it. I am certain that you and your sister shall make great progress while I am gone, and one day I will visit you again."

"Eeeeeeeee!" Ikscala squealed. Jack stood up and took Seth's arm onto his shoulder to keep him up.

"Now what?" Seth asked.

"We must somehow signal Demi to come and get us" Jack said. "But how?"

"Perhaps I can help" Orda said. "If this 'Demi' is a guardian, I should be able to communicate with him directly in my state."

"Unnecessary" Demi said. Jack and Seth looked up with a start. Ima held her hands to her mouth in shock. Ikscala's frozen expression remained in mid-excitement but her eyes shrank back in terror. Hovering just above the group was a dark being in billowing cloak that was surrounded by sparkling lights. "I felt the presence of you two reuniting, so I decided to come pick you up on a whim."

"What if we hadn't found the Gem by now?" Seth asked. Demi smirked.

"**Yeah, what if?"** He encased the two in a sphere of gravity and brought them off of the ground. There was a pause in the greatness of the moment where Demi looked out to the field of battle. The Yeti were tangled in a great and bloody battle, and the spectacle of violence elevated constantly. The great show of power and struggle made Demi grin. "Sometimes, rarely though, **I love this world.**" With that he sped off, faster than a flash, and parted a single drifting cloud in the sky as he sped off of the planet entirely, carrying with him the two great warriors who were eternally destiny-bound...


	37. Episode 37

Disclaimer: Samurai Jack belongs to Gendy Tartakovsky and the Cartoon Network. All other concepts will be right to me or their other creators as they come up.

* * *

XXVII. Claude Striker and the Hunt for Jack

* * *

Out in space, beyond the Earth's fragile atmosphere of pristine blue and blotched green and brown hovering over the industrial metropoli, beyond the thick metal clouds of satellites and orbiting ships, between all the paths where ships would go, all to and fro, from space to Earth and back; in all that spacey darkness Demi sped with Jack and Seth in secluded spheres of gravity beside him. Sustained by magical powers out in the infinite cold of space, Jack and Seth looked down upon the Earth as it slowly rotated like a majestic marble floating in an oily sea.

"What are we doing?" Jack asked. "Demi, please, I implore you to make sense of this."

"Don't question a daemon's ways!" Demi exclaimed. His lethargic voice had become very agitated and exasperated at Jack's sudden inquiry. "You want me to just throw you out into space? I'll do it!"

"Don't do that" Seth said. "We aren't being skeptical of you, we're just confused as to what is happening right now." Seth took out, with a pained groan, the map that they had since followed, given to him by the Earthen guardian Atless. "We've retrieved the Ice Gem now, and next on this line is the Fire Gem..."

"That we already have" Jack said, holding it up. Seth nodded and rolled through the scroll, past the ancient daemonic text and through the redundant drawings of strange, long-forgotten beasts of myth and lore.

"I know where to go" Demi said "but 'where' isn't the current problem. What's wrong is the 'when'. The next Gem will be the Poison Gem, which should allow you to control, to a limit, the power to poison your foes and resist being poisoned yourselves. Its guardian is a part of a race of giant snakes that has inhabited the planet for a good, long time in secrecy. They reside in a marsh that is often hidden under the tide of a great, freshwater sea, and only once every four months can such a place be entered."

"When is the next possible time to enter it?" Seth asked.

"About three days" Demi said. "However, seeing as you're both wanted men, camping out in the middle of Aku-land for any amount of time is sure to result in some unnecessary complications to your plans. And _you_ plans directly overlap with _my_ plans, so I can't have you miss a single chance. We're going to orbit the Earth in an accelerated time-field and reach the junction of time within about a half a day." The explanation of the fiend's magic only served to redefine just how much power he held in his control over the Gem's choice emotion, evil. Jack and Seth simply nodded in acknowledgment and silenced themselves while Demi flew, too fast to follow, around the Earth. He flew faster than the Earth could turn and reached the horizon that it spun towards before it could keep up. The sun sank behind and rose in front as Demi flew, grazing through the forces of space and time with incomparable power of his own.

Meanwhile, during the days that Demi blazed past so effortlessly, the world continued to spin at its normal rate. Time marched in its standard way, as measured by Aku's patented, empirical Aku-Standard-Time system, or AST. As that time marched, so to did the citizens of Earth. All the creatures, sentient or simple, humanoid or bizarre as heck, went on with their lives without any knowledge of the greater threats that beckoned to intrude upon their peace.

Pushing through the outskirts of a large, seaside town, a group of soldiers fully dressed in combat armor marched out of the dark alleys towards the main docks. Many ships were docked there, most of them ill equipped to do anything but fish for a few hours a day. It was no harbor for battleships or military transports to use indiscriminately. It was a calm and peaceful setting for the many sailors and seafarers to set up their shops just outside their docked ships. The group of soldiers marched down the dock, staying on guard, until they found themselves at its end. Built out of forsaken scrap wood and chipped nails was a tiny shack with a sign hung on its scrappy, two-halves-glued-together door.

'**GO AWAY, DAMMIT!'**

"Captain" radioed one soldier, "we may have found it. It's at the very end of the pier. Permission to enter?"

"Denied" replied the captain. "Stand guard until the Commander gets there." From the other end of the pier a lone soldier marched. He wore an outstanding uniform, being the commander of the legion. Thick purple pants and top with metal shoulder pads and steel-rimmed combat boots. He wore a helmet, not unlike any of the other soldiers, but with a green glow to the visor instead of the regular purple. On his back was a grand weapon. **A broad, thick, aged and battle-ready cleaving blade, a Buster Sword.** He marched his way through the loyally parting legion and arrived at the door. Despite the sign hanging in plain view, he knocked very loudly. Something within the shack fell down and a deep growling groan was heard. After that, the shift of metal, and then silence.

Claude drew his sword quickly and blocked the powerful drive of a metal spear through the shoddy wooden door. The entire shack burst apart and fell down, creating a dusty barrier that blocked the soldiers from seeing their commander's struggle.

"Hold fire!" a soldier shouted as many had their weapons raised. The dust cloud started to settle and the two men came into view. One, Claude Striker, stood with his sword out and aimed forward. The other, a man still wearing heart-pattern boxers and a mud-stained wife-beater shirt, held a long metal pipe with a cut and sharpened tip in a fighting stance. He scowled his stubble-covered face and glared Claude's emotionless helmet-mask down. Then both men stepped back and held their weapons to the side, disengaging.

"I never thought I'd see you again, kid" spoke Swiftwind Kid, the illustrious sailor. "Hell must've frozen over and you took the first glacier-wall outta there, God-Damn." Claude sheathed his sword and stood opposite the blonde, arrogant sailor. The winds between them stopped blowing for a second as the tension of their battle hadn't left the area.

* * *

After a quick rummage through the rubble of what was once his home, Swiftwind Kid boarded his ship and prepared to take off in his denim jumpsuit of a captain's outfit with the top tied at his waist. His white shirt still had food stains in it but its pocket was the exact right size for storing his box of cigarettes, the last box he was able to afford.

"I've had to cut back on smoking" he announced as he lit one up and puffed out a wisp of smoke. "I can only go one stick a day, now, or I'll be broke beyond broke. In fact, I only found this pack in the trash when some snooty bastard of a whale-fisher decided he didn't like the brand enough right after he bought it. Life's been going pretty raw for me lately, dammitall. How're you?" He turned with a grin to Claude, who stood on the deck, leaning against the rusty metal railing, with a grin. "So what, now you don't talk?" Claude didn't motion to answer. He just kept leaning and crossing his arms. Kid turned around with a shake of his head. "Dammitall, I know the worst people..." he lowed.

"You know" Kid announced as he undid the dock tie, "that big guy came to me a good while ago. He was thinking about starting LANDSLIDE up again. You hear anything about that, Claude?"

"No" Claude answered. Kid waited for him to keep talking, but it seemed to be too much to hope for.

"Didn't you have something to do with their last attack?" Kid prodded. "Something like setting up a few bombs up in that lava-geyser reactor?" Claude shifted his feet and pushed off the railing. "You know a lot of people died because of that. I bet those were the same people ya'll were trying to save, too." Kid turned full around and jabbed his finger Claude's way. "You idiots never think ahead before you act. You just see the opportunity, but you can't pull your heads out of your asses long enough to see the consequences _of_ that opportunity! You just do whatever and then run away before you can bother seeing the destruction you cause, all while patting yourselves on the back because your fighting against the same vague cause that all the other rebels are saying! 'If we take down Aku, the end will justify the means'. That kind of crap makes me sick to think about."

"I left LANDSLIDE" Claude said. "Right now I am on a new mission."

"What?" Kid asked, his collar still hot with rage.

"I have been tasked" Claude said "to find and destroy Samurai Jack by Aku himself." Kid threw his arms up and shouted as if he'd been hit. He grabbed the sides of his head and tossed off his goggles to the floor. In a rage he started stomping near them.

"That's even _worse_ than what you were doing **BEFORE! DAMMIT, KID!**" Kid kept stomping until he heard a smash. He looked past his rage-blinded eyes and saw that his goggles were underneath his foot. He picked them up, sighed with relief when he saw they were undamaged and placed them back on his head. "Keep me out of it. I ain't interested in working with that crazy guy again. Once in a lifetime is more than enough for me, thanks!" Claude held something that jingled in the air. It caught Kid's attention so much that his eyes went straight to his hand. Claude was holding keys, of some kind, on a keyring with a long blue feather attached by a thin chain. "What's that?" Kid asked.

"Yours" Claude said. He tossed the keys and Kid caught them with a slight fumble in both hands. He looked the key over carefully, seeing the pattern of its grooves which unlocked a whole plethora of long-passed memories deep within his mind. "We need to commission a transport and you're the only one we can trust. We've brought it with us just outside the city." Kid gripped the key tight and kept it in his tight-balled fist. He looked up with scowling rage at Claude and bit his cigarette-butt clean off and out of his mouth.

"You're fixing for a serious ass-beating here, kid" lowed the sailor. "I'm giving you five minutes to get the hell off my dock or so help me I'll ram this boat of mine straight up your ass!" Claude stood a moment in silence, then stepped forward and held out his hand. Kid glared him down through his visor and leaned in closer, a threatening closeness where their foreheads had nearly touched. "Your eyes are different, kid. **They ain't bright anymore. They're just dull.**" Claude's hand started to shake. He balled it up and jabbed Kid in the gut. As Kid was stunned Claude drew his other arm back and planted a solid and powerful punch square in his stomach. Kid slid back along his worn, paint-chipped deck and held at his stomach fast. Claude rushed in to keep up the fight but missed as Kid dodged his punch and swept a leg under his feet. Claude stumbled into the crooked corner of the bow's railing and fell back-first into it. Before he could recover he faced the sharp end of a metal pole at his throat. Kid stood above him, weapon poised and battle-ready, with his keys already safe in his pocket.

"Thanks for the memories" Kid said. He spun his spear away and held it straight up at his side. "Now get offa my ship!"

"Hey old man!" a girl shouted. Kid turned right into a flying, rotating kick that powered straight into his straight-carved face and threw him in a spiral off of the ship. He went right into the water with a loud splash as the girl of Claude's company in her black karate gi landed barefoot on the crooked wooden deck. She slowly moved her other foot to the floor and crossed her arms haughtily. Kid resurfaced and splashed around in anger.

"Heeey!" he shouted. "Dammitall, that was a cheap shot, missy! If you wanna fight you've gotta declare it first!" She ran over to the side of the boat and leaned over to yell at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she called. "I can't quite hear you over that loud, obnoxious splashing sound in the water!"

"You biiiiitch!" he shouted. "Come down here and talk to my fist with your face! I'll beat you into a whole new shade of ugly you unwholesome, mannish little girl!" The girl stuck her tongue out and left Kid to float angrily in the water. She then ran over to Claude to help him up, but he refused her hand and forced himself to his feet.

"That could've gone better" she said "but really, what did you expect to happen with him?" Claude groaned and held his head. The girl held his shoulders and suddenly felt his weight fall into her as his legs gave out. "Are you alright, Claude? What's wrong?"

"My head..." he moaned. "It's a...ugh, splitting migraine!"

"Oh no" she said grimly. "Is it another vision?" Claude just clutched at his metal helmet-mask and breathed loudly through it. He could see bright flashes of imagery flashing before his eyes, he could hear a symphony of different sounds. Of children and people all crying in pain and anguish, slowly drowned out by the beating of helicopter blades. And then those blades gave way to the clashing sounds of metal and the rapid beating of rain onto the ground. The stomping of rushing feet, the sweeping sounds of swords swinging, and finally a painful finale where one man stood triumphant over the other in a water-soaked battlefield. One man fell, the other stood tall, moving the hair from his face with his slender forearm.

With a gasp Claude returned to his senses and shot straight up. He looked around, seeing the girl still holding him fast and the sun still in its twilight red hue in the distance. He quieted his breathing and calmed himself down, then stood on his own two feet and brushed himself off.

"What was it this time?" she asked.

"Nothing new" he said "but I'm dreading the day that it is..."

* * *

Finding no success in their mission, Claude and his troop of soldiers left the town and Swiftwind behind. They returned to the huge craft carried by a mobile aircraft docking tank on forest-clearing treads, still covered by a thick and dark cloth just waiting to be thrown off in dramatic reveal. The soldiers filed up and boarded the main compartments of the huge machine. Twelve went to the cockpit to pilot and steer the beastly thing while the rest patrolled on the guard-railed walkways that encircled it, like a huge moving castle. Claude was the last to board, behind his female companion. She turned around with a start after she had planted both feet on solid metal floor and noticed Claude gazing nostalgically away. Even beneath the cold metal helmet he wore, she could feel his heart beating with longing.

"You okay?" she asked. Claude nodded then immediately boarded.

"We're not too far from his last prospected position" Claude said. "We'll find a safe haven just outside the Highland Foothills and mobilize through the swamps."

"It's possible that he would have moved by now" the girl said.

"It's the only lead we have" Claude said. "We have to find him. Our goals are-"

"My goals aren't the same as yours" the girl said. Claude turned to her but she looked away in defiance. Then, suddenly, her face turned to shock and glee as she looked out onto the grassy hills that led away from the town. "Look!" she exclaimed. Claude looked in her direction and saw the shadow of a man sprinting their way. "Is that who I think it is?" the girl said. Claude jumped clear over the rail and landed on the ground ready to run. He started making his way toward the man that came at him while his guards all positioned themselves to shoot on their commander's orders. Halfway between the first peak of the hills and the menacingly huge machine, they met. Two shadows standing in the field. One was garbed in the apparel of a Soldier, the other looked like a luckless mechanic. Swiftwind Kid, with a backpack full of stolen goods and a pristine steel halberd leaned against his shoulder, stood and smiled as he took deep, panting breaths.

"Listen kid" the sailor began, "I ain't doing this for you or any of your cronies on that there tank. I'm doing this for myself. That cheapskate Samurai lifted a free ride offa my ship, **and no one rides Swiftwind's ship for free!**" Claude nodded and extended his hand. Kid accepted it and shook it powerfully. "You still don't have any conviction in that handshake" Kid said. They parted and Kid stood, arrogant, with his fists at his sides. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna go up and die on you."

"Hey!" shouted a distant voice from out of sight. Kid looked back with an alert scowl and started leaning to run away.

"We should go now" Kid said. He and Claude raced each other back to the tank as Claude gave the signal to depart. A mob of angered sailors came running up over the hill, all of them waving swords and laser sabers and some holding crude pitchforks in their hands, all cursing and shouting and scrambling together for the same thing.

"Get back here, you lowlife!" shouted some big-bodied shopkeeper. "You stole from me for the last damn time!"

"That's my spear!" another man shouted.

"Those're my clothes!" a man in his underwear called.

"I bet he stole those cigars too!" another man vehemently chided. Kid reached the tank just as it started turning away. He sprinted just to keep up with it and pumped his arms to keep himself moving. He made a reach for the ladder and missed, then fell back until his arms pumped even faster to keep his movement up. Then another reach and he missed again. Just before he fell back his hand was grabbed in a tight, well-trained grip by the girl, who looked down at him and smirked.

"Brag later, girly!" he exclaimed. "Haul me up!" The girl braced herself against the railing and tossed Kid up onto the walkway. Claude arrived just in time as the massive tank started to accelerate downhill. Kid pushed himself onto his back and heaved tired breath while Claude and the girl stood over him. "Claude...Tina...either of you got a light?" Tina, the girl in black karate gi, giggled and shook her head. Kid took out a cigar from his shirt pocket and held it in his smirking mouth. Claude helped him up to his feet and shook his head. "Did you just laugh under that metal?" Kid asked. Claude straightened himself out and nodded to Kid. Then he turned and walked toward the main cockpit while Kid followed from behind, still panting from the sheer exhausting run he had made. "I'm too old for a marathon sprint, okay? You think I walked my way outta that town? No sir. I ran across rooftops to get outta their line of sight, damn far-sighted fishers..."

While Kid complained the giant tank tore across the rolling landscape, ripping apart the great sandy dunes that lined an endlessly broad beach where the bones of giants littered the ground. Whole skeletons of giant ocean beasts and the other creatures they had eaten lay out in the open air, all bleached by the sun for some long stretch of time, all of them forgotten and phased out of the people's memory. A sandy field of bones, which the treads of the colossal tank rolled over and crushed without fail, next to the rolling blue sea. Atop the land-freight the cloth over the larger-still cargo continued to billow, sweeping up with the gusting winds of speed to reveal the metallic underlay of the device beneath. Held in place by a myriad of thick ropes, all of them tied _down_ as if to keep the thing within from drifting endlessly _up_.


End file.
